The Elements
by RedPhoenix13
Summary: Hermione, Ginny, and Luna are captured in a Death Eater raid and taken to a brothel where they form a triad known as the Elements. They are put up for auction, to be sold either for a night's pleasure or for permanent purchase. Just when they think they are lost, someone unexpected ultimately parts with a fortune and takes all three. But just whose side is he really on?
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: My initials are not JKR. Ergo, I am not the creator of the Harry Potter universe. That distinction belongs solely to Madam Rowling.

**The Elements**

_Prologue_

Chaos.

Ruin.

Panic.

Fear.

Grief.

Fury.

Hermione felt oddly as if her ears and her eyes had been disconnected. For long moments, as the fighting raged around her throughout the shambles of the wedding, she could only watch helplessly as two of her dearest friends died trying to protect each other. Disjointedly she wondered where all the sound had gone. She couldn't even hear her own heartbeat.

Suddenly, all her wits came rushing back to her, even if the sound didn't. She opened her mouth in a scream of rage she couldn't hear, and she raised her wand. She ruthlessly plowed through the surviving three Death Eaters out of the six that had killed Lupin and Tonks, flashes of light from her wand striking their targets and sending them to join their brethren already dead at the hands of Lupin and Tonks.

Instinct caused her to whirl about suddenly, her wand slicing through the air and taking down another enemy, not a Death Eater but certainly one of the Dark Lord's sympathizers. With his death, it seemed the sound was released. It nearly drove her to her knees.

"Hermione!" cried a familiar voice. She turned to see two more friends, Ginny and Luna, making their way to her, fighting through the melee.

"Please, have you seen Harry?" Ginny begged when she and the Ravenclaw girl reached Hermione.

Hermione, her face suddenly haggard, shook her head. "He, Ron, and I got separated."

Before either of the other two girls could say anything, however, a mad cackle sounded from behind them. "Lost your protectors, have you? Ickle Mudblood and her blood traitor friends all alone?" the babyish voice of Bellatrix Lestrange cooed.

The three girls turned all at once, their wands raised and already casting curses. Bellatrix and Lucius Malfoy deflected them easily, the insane witch giggling the entire time.

Hermione tried to concentrate on both fighting the two Death Eaters in front of her, Ginny, and Luna and watching their backs to make sure they weren't caught by surprise. But in trying to do both, she was left vulnerable on her right side, and that proved her undoing. She saw a flash of sickly yellow light out of the corner of her eye, and when she tried to deflect it, Bellatrix saw her chance. She hit Hermione with a spell the valiant Gryffindor never saw coming, striking her in the head and causing her to crumple in an unconscious heap on the ground.

Ginny and Luna didn't stand a chance after Hermione fell.

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So? What do we think? Constructive criticism will be appreciated, caustic comments will be noted and duly ignored. Please and thank you. Love,

RP


	2. Auction

__Again, not JKR. Harry Potter universe is not mine, except the plot of this particular story and unnamed characters in the brothel.

* * *

_Chapter One_

_~Auction~_

Severus stepped into the Silver Serpent, pausing just inside the door as it shut behind him to ensure that the hood of his cloak was in place before he stepped further into the brothel. He would not reveal himself unless it was absolutely necessary that he speak with someone.

His eyes flicked disinterestedly about the place, sliding over the high-class prostitutes – who were much more tastefully dressed as well as more subtly engaged in their business than their cheap, most-likely-rife-with-disease counterparts of Knockturn Alley – and the wealthy members of the pure-blooded elite they catered to. He could not care less what debauchery the wealthiest of the Dark Lord's supporters got up to in this establishment well-known for its catering to the pleasures of Death Eaters and their associates. He was here for one reason, and he hoped fervently that he was wrong.

He'd heard word from his fellow Death Eaters of a particularly triumphant raid resulting in a particular capture and that this was where the captives had been brought. It so happened that three young women, precious to certain members of the Order of the Phoenix and to the two greatest enemies of the Dark Lord, had gone missing around the same time the raid had occurred. This was the last place he wanted to find them.

When he couldn't locate any of the three objects of his nearly obsessive search of the past several weeks, he made to turn to ask to see the proprietress in order to question her. But suddenly a man, rather tastefully dressed in black business robes with green and silver trim, appeared from a side door leading off the main room of the establishment. He strode over to a clear stretch of floor that appeared to be used as some sort of staging area and stood front and center. Directly behind him, out of the floor, rose a round platform made of polished marble, about a foot in height and five feet in diameter. The man held out his arms, and the music and chatter died down. The lights in the establishment died down except for two torches that glowed to life on either side of the cleared stretch of floor.

"My dear friends, esteemed gentlemen, pure of blood. It is my immense pleasure to offer to you tonight a most rare treat for your enjoyment. Such a treat only comes once in a lifetime, so I beg of you, do not allow this opportunity to go to waste. We have available for purchase, either for one night's pleasure or for permanent ownership, three new additions to our establishment. They are available either individually or as a full triad." He paused, somewhat theatrically, to allow his words to sink in. "What makes these treasures so special, you ask? Besides each having a face and body to drive any red-blooded wizard to distraction, each has a distinct primal air about her that will make her a most rewarding addition to any bed. Each also possesses at least one particular trait that will make her conquest especially savory for any supporter of the Dark Lord who makes the purchase."

As he listened to the man's words and caught the almost malicious tone, he began to feel extremely uneasy about these latest additions. He forced himself to wait and be certain. He could not give himself away just yet. He continued to listen.

"My dear friends, allow me to present The Silver Serpent's own special trio, The Elements!" The man stepped to one side with a flourish of his arm, drawing the attention of the entire room to the marble platform, which was no longer empty. There was a sudden rush of whirling black smoke, confined to the space within the boundaries of the platform, and when it cleared, there, standing back to back in a cluster and looking scared, defiant, and resigned all at once, were the last three witches Severus would ever have wanted to see in an establishment like the Silver Serpent.

The marble platform was rotating so that the three witches, who were bound together by thin, glowing silver cords looped about their wrists, remained back-to-back while the gentlemen could still view them. They were all dressed provocatively, their colors deliberately chosen to mock their House ties.

As the platform rotated, it paused so the man could give a description of each young witch's traits while allowing the men to view her, running their eyes up and down her form with unbridled lust. As the platform rotated and the man spoke, the witches were as still and motionless as though they were part of the marble of the platform itself. Unwilling to back down even in the face of such a terrible fate, they gazed steadily back at the crowd, their eyes judging and condemning every man in the room.

"Gentlemen, you see before you the three young women who make up the fairer portion of the inner circle of the once great Harry Potter. First is Luna Lovegood, member of Ravenclaw House at Hogwarts School, and daughter of the _unfortunate_ late Xenophilius Lovegood, editor of the nonsensical Quibbler Magazine which has the unfortunate distinction of being the one publication to openly declare its support of Harry Potter even after the announcement of our dear Dark Lord's return. She has a light, ethereal personality that should prove to be a breath of fresh air for whichever wizard purchases her. For one night, two thousand galleons. For permanent purchase, two hundred thousand galleons."

The marble platform paused so that Miss Lovegood faced the crowd. She was dressed in a royal blue confection that conformed to her slim, willowy frame and consisted of a short silk under layer that only just barely covered the important parts of her body with little more than strings holding the dress to her shoulders and an outer layer that fell to just below her knees made of lace with short cap sleeves. The neckline of the lace layer was modest, but the lace was so sheer that the silk under layer was plainly visible and thus, the lace served no practical purpose other than to dress up an outfit that would otherwise be little more than an undergarment. She wore no jewelry other than a bronze-colored silk ribbon tied about her neck with a bronze serpent charm, and on her feet were a pair of strappy, two-inch-stiletto-heel sandals the same color as the ribbon about her neck.

The expression on Miss Lovegood's face was calm and serene, so much so that Severus was tempted to believe her mind wasn't all there, for what girl could possibly look so unaffected in the face of a fate such as the one about to befall her? But when he took a closer look at her eyes, he saw that while they were dull and muted as she gazed back at the crowd, in the shadows behind the silver-blue of her eyes lurked a secret, and he had the feeling that whichever wizard attempted to toss her into his bed against her will would find her to be a howling, hurricane-force gale rather than a breath of fresh air.

"Second, we have Ginevra Weasley, whose capture is a greater blow still to the Order of the Phoenix. Member of Gryffindor House at Hogwarts School, daughter and sister to six blood traitor members of the Order, sister to one third of the Golden Trio, and, best of all, Harry Potter's school sweetheart. True to her Gryffindor tendencies, she is brash and bold and will prove to be most invigorating for any man able to handle a blaze in his bed. For one night, three thousand galleons. For permanent purchase, three hundred thousand galleons."

And Miss Weasley's chocolate brown eyes certainly blazed now as the round platform rotated around before stopping with her facing the room. She wore a glittering gold two-piece outfit that contrasted with her fiery hair and featured a top with a single strap on her right shoulder, the neckline swooping down to curve under her left arm and adorned with crimson silk ribbon trim. Her midriff was bare, exposing the pale flesh of her belly, and the bottom portion of her outfit consisted of a skirt with an asymmetrical hem, also with crimson silk ribbon trim, that came to her upper thigh on one side before falling to her calf on the opposite side. A curtain of fringe cascaded from the hem to create symmetry; the fringe was shortest where the hem of the dress was longest, and was longest where the hem only came to her upper thigh, and the effect was the illusion of a straight line around her calves. Around her neck glittered a gold necklace, its delicate links curving so that it resembled a vine curling about her throat, with a small, round ruby sparkling at each juncture between links. A gold bangle in the shape of a serpent with larger rubies for eyes twined about her left bicep, and her shoes were a pair of strappy flat gladiator-style sandals the same shade of red as the rubies.

Her expression was still, as indifferent as Luna's, but serene would not be the word to describe Miss Weasley's face. Grim would be a far more fitting term. Her eyes, on the other hand, were fierce and wrathful, and while she stood still on the platform, her body seemed ready to fly into a blazing rage at any moment.

"And finally, in the ultimate _coup d'etat, _the greatest blow that could be delivered to the Order of the Phoenix by those who fight for the Dark Lord short of the murder of Albus Dumbledore or the capture of Harry Potter himself, I give you their precious Gryffindor Princess, the mudblood Hermione Granger. The female third and the brains behind the Golden Trio. Protégé of Minerva McGonagall, head of Gryffindor House at Hogwarts School, she is the sole daughter to the late, most unfortunate Muggles Richard and Jean Granger. The so-called brightest witch of her age, yet here she is, captured and awaiting her fate at your hands. Steadfast and strong, she will be the hardest to break, but when she is broken, every move within her will be earth-shattering. And incidentally, she is a virgin." Those last four words were delivered slowly, laden with meaning and promise as the platform rotated and stopped to reveal the final member of the triad of young witches standing on its surface. "Naturally, her virgin state makes a gem like her all the more rare, and as we all know, the rarest stones come with the highest price. But surely the chance to break the maidenhead of one such as her will make her purchase worth the price. For one night, five thousand galleons. For permanent purchase, five hundred thousand galleons."

Severus found himself staring as intently as every other man in the room, but in complete shock. _That_ was Hermione Granger? He was almost convinced that whoever had captured the three young women had made a mistake. Surely that goddess couldn't be the same insufferable know-it-all he'd known at Hogwarts, always thrusting her hand into the air, ready to ask or answer any question imaginable.

Her crimson silk dress was Grecian in style, flowing luxuriously over her petite form but styled in a way that hinted at, rather than hiding, her curves. The fabric, which was shot through with shimmering gold thread, fell to her feet, but any trace of modesty was swept away by both the neckline, which plunged between her breasts to fall just above her stomach, and the slit that soared clean up to the golden belt that was loosely looped about her waist just above the curve of her hip. Moreover, the slit was really less of a slit and more of a gap in the fabric, and it, along with the plunging neckline, made it quite clear that Miss Granger wore nothing underneath her dress, and the flush tingeing her face told Severus that her outfit was most definitely not chosen by her. Unlike both Miss Lovegood and Miss Weasley, Miss Granger wore nothing about her neck. Instead, she wore two gold armbands similar to Miss Weasley's, in the shape of serpents twining about her biceps, but oddly enough, instead of rubies, they had emeralds for eyes. On her feet glittered a pair of strappy gold shoes similar to Miss Lovegood's, only an inch or so taller, and her thick, heavy mass of curls was left unbound to spill down to the small of her back.

While the expressions in Miss Lovegood's and Miss Weasley's eyes made it clear they would not make things easy for whichever wizard purchased them, it was the look in Hermione's eyes that made Severus think that whoever was stupid enough to even think of buying any of the witches would do better to leave well enough alone. Miss Lovegood's pale eyes were dull, while Miss Weasley's chocolate eyes blazed fiercely, but Hermione's bright brown eyes were hard as stone. The color of tiger's-eye agate, they gleamed with hatred, and held a cold promise of retribution. It would be foolish in the extreme to underestimate the smallest of the three witches.

But suddenly, as his gaze slid over her body once more, his Slytherin traits began to assert themselves, and he began to plot and plan. He had, after all, been instructed to help search for the missing girls, as it had been suspected that they had been snatched by Death Eaters. Well, he'd found them. Now it was a matter of getting them back into the hands of the Order without giving up his role as a spy. If he made the purchase…

And here was where the most Slytherin of his traits began to assert themselves. He had quickly realized that she was beautiful. In fact, she was absolutely fucking gorgeous, and he couldn't believe how well she'd grown up while he wasn't paying attention. It had been so long since he'd been with a woman without having to pay, but this time he would be paying to save the woman in question from a worse fate. And despite the fact that he truly was on the side of the light and could not bear the idea of such a brilliant young witch being subjugated to the life of a whore or kept woman against her will, he was still a Slytherin.

As his eyes slid over her body, he quickly concluded that the perfect repayment for his efforts would be just that: her body. Of course, it would be all the sweeter if she came to him of her own will rather than in repayment, so there would be no need to mention anything about a debt of any sort. He would have her, and there would be no resistance, only passion and obedience. While he knew he wasn't the most handsome man in existence, he knew he wasn't monstrously ugly, and he was a skilled enough lover that he would be able to give her the time of her life, whether she thought she wanted it from him or not.

And so, his decision was made.

The platform began rotating again, this time without stopping, so that the audience could look at all three of them. "Gentlemen, once more, I give you The Silver Serpent's ultimate offering, The Elements. Each of these three gems is a prize in her own right, no matter whose bed she graces, but for ten thousand galleons for one night or one million galleons for permanent purchase, the full triad will be yours to do with as you please."

There was a moment of stunned silence, and then suddenly the room was full of male voices calling out as every pompous ass in the room forgot about his current female companion, much to said female's dismay, and began shouting in the hopes of claiming one of the triad for his own.

"Three thousand galleons for one night with the red-head!" shouted one voice

"Two hundred thousand for the Ravenclaw bint!" called another.

"Five hundred thousand for the Mudblood bitch!" screeched a third.

Other calls sounded as well, but then, over all of them rose a dark, silky voice familiar to many of them, as many of them had sons or daughters who were taught by and members of the same House as the owner of said voice, which was currently amplified by magic. "For the complete trio, one. Million. Galleons."

* * *

So, so, so? Questions, comments, concerns? Critiques? I'm a giddy new FanFiction writer, you have the advantage, people!

RP


	3. Bought

Oh, look, two chapters in one day! Just don't get used to it. There will most likely be stretches of time where I don't update for various reasons.

Again, not JKR. Characters are not mine, except the brothel characters. And Mindy.

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_Chapter Two_

_~Bought~_

Dead silence fell over the crowd as everyone turned to peer toward the main doors to the establishment. The servant sitting unobtrusively in a corner and magically turning the marble platform forgot his task in his attempts to see who had spoken, and the platform stopped rotating, once more with Hermione Granger facing the crowd, though the other two girls had finally moved, turning their heads to peer over their own and their smaller companion's shoulders. Their eyes were hostile as they waited for their fate to reveal himself.

As the figure lowered the hood of his cloak, Hermione completely forgot her hostility as she stared in shock. There, in all his dark glory, stood Severus Snape, the expression on his face completely unreadable except for his burning eyes as they met hers. Suddenly she felt extremely exposed, and as his eyes openly slid down her body, taking in her costume once more, she felt the urge to sit down and cross all her limbs in an effort to cover herself. She also suddenly found herself extremely glad she was the one currently facing the audience, her body for the most part blocking those of her two friends. And to her shame, she also felt an unexpected heat beginning to pool low in her belly at the intensity with which his eyes examined her.

The reminder of her two friends brought her back to reality, reminding her of where they were and what Snape had just done. And just like that, her anger blazed anew. She didn't know what the hell kind of game he was playing, or even what side he was truly on anymore – for a moment she'd been relieved, thinking he was rescuing them, but the way he'd run his eyes over her body just now made her suddenly doubt he was about to just turn them back into Dumbledore and McGonagall's care – but she was damn well going to get some answers. She didn't know how she was going to bully them out of him, but there were two reasons she would have to pluck up the courage to do so, and they both stood behind her.

_Fine, _she thought. Her stance shifted ever so subtly, as her head lowered but jutted slightly outward as her body weight shifted almost imperceptibly forward. Her eyes met his in challenge._ Take us from this place, Snape, but brace yourself. This is the day of reckoning, and I'll get my answers one way or another. And while you may have purchased all three of us, you can be damn certain you aren't laying one bloody finger on Luna or Ginny._

Severus, despite being across the room from the three witches, saw Hermione's stance shift subtly until she was leaning ever so slightly forward, aggressive and ready for a fight, and knew she would protect her friends with everything she had. She would fight him every step of the way, and he knew that would hold especially true when she learned of his plans for her. She would raise hell. Of course, that particular Gryffindor tendency of hers only made him more determined than ever that he would have her.

_We shall see, Miss Granger. I will have you under me, one way or another. You may be certain of that._ With that last thought, unspoken but clearly conveyed in a silent promise as his black eyes raked once more over her form before catching and holding her agate-colored ones, he turned to speak with the proprietress of the Silver Serpent in order to finalize his purchase.

Meanwhile, a still-serene Luna, a dumbfounded Ginny, and an increasingly uneasy Hermione were whisked from the main room and back up to the three rooms – like gilded cages, they were, as for all their luxury, the three girls were still prisoners within them – they had occupied during their brief tenure at the Silver Serpent. Hermione assumed they had been separated to keep them from plotting; aside from the day they were delivered to the establishment, the three girls hadn't seen each other until the auction just now.

She was shoved none too gently into her room, the door swinging shut behind her and the wards around her room shimmering into place. As she picked herself up from where she'd fallen on her hands and knees, it occurred to her yet again that she supposed she ought to feel flattered that the proprietress of the thrice-damned brothel and the dark wizards who'd brought her here had been so concerned about her ability to escape or hex the place to pieces around them that they'd erected such powerful wards. Had she her wand, she _might_ be able to break them, but it would take her _forever._

With a sigh, Hermione plopped down onto the luxurious queen-size bed that dominated the center of the far wall. She resisted the urge to pull uselessly at the shoes on her feet; she'd realized quickly that they'd spelled every item of clothing they'd given her to remain on her body until she had spoken permission from the proprietress or her lackeys to remove them. Had she not been purchased just now but had instead continued to work here, the spell would have allowed her to remove clothes without permission only while servicing a client.

She gazed out the window of her room and wondered yet again how she, Ginny, and Luna had managed to get themselves into this mess. Worse still was the thought that this time, it didn't look as if there was any way out. They had no wands, no money, and no means of contacting the Order for help. Hermione's grasp of wandless magic was much better than Ginny's or Luna's, but not even what she knew would be able to get them out of this. And now that she no longer had access to the combined, nearly limitless resources of the libraries of Grimmauld Place and HogwartsSchool, she was stuck, unable to proceed with her independent studying of wandless magic and thus unable to learn something that might get her and her friends out.

She had tried, of course, in her desperation to escape all the possible fates that awaited her here in the Death Eaters' brothel. During that terrible first hour after she'd first been shoved into this gilded cage of a room, her panic had been so great that her power surged from her in the greatest display of deliberate wandless magic she'd had since first starting to learn about it. But it was no use. The wards she might have been able to break with a wand did not so much as flicker. With increasing fear but declining hope, she'd kept trying every chance she could get, to no avail.

She found her mind wandering over the events of the past week. That was how long they'd been here, apparently. She had no idea how Luna and Ginny had fared, but apparently it had taken six days for her to awaken in this room from her injuries from fighting Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange, then she'd spent all day here yesterday with the last injuries being fixed – broken bones, cuts, and bruises -, and then she'd spent most of today being lectured, again here in this room, on how she would be earning her keep at the brothel and how she was to behave and interact with her customers. Then, shortly after lunch, she'd been informed that she and her two friends were to be sold. The first time she'd seen her two friends since the fight was just now on the auction platform.

She realized that was also the first time she'd learned of her parents' deaths. Not knowing how they'd died caused a clawing emptiness to enclose her heart and make it difficult for her to breathe, but the auctioneer had spoken of their deaths with such malicious pleasure that she knew he hadn't been lying about it. Her parents were dead.

Just ten minutes after she'd been deposited back in this room and just before she could begin to work herself into hysterics over her parents, the wards at her door shimmered, signifying the arrival of the proprietress herself, the Madam Elapida Serpens. Hermione shot to her feet, knowing that it would be easier to defend herself against the woman's harsh yanking if she were standing. When it came to being cruel, the Madam could give Dolores Umbridge a run for her money. Of course, the two women were like night and day; Umbridge was squat and ugly, with a simpering personality like poisoned honey, while Madam Serpens was tall and elegant, but with a personality like pure sulfuric acid.

The door swung open, and Hermione blinked to see the Madam standing there with what looked like a small procession behind her. Two of the Madam's lackeys – of the same sort as the Crabbe and Goyle men, only most likely too cowardly to become Death Eaters themselves – gripped Ginny and Luna by the upper arm, and a maid carried a small pile of clothing for the three girls. Hermione knew that the maid carried what served as the uniform worn by the girls when they weren't servicing the wealthy patrons of the Silver Serpent: fitted casual robes in either green, silver, white, or black, all with either trim or embroidery in some variation of the Slytherin House colors of green and silver.

Since her arrival, Hermione had been dressed in black robes with curling, twining silver vines with tiny green leaves embroidered about her neckline, the hem of her robes, and the hems of her sleeves. Luna had been dressed in silver robes with green velvet trim, and Ginny had been dressed in green robes with silver and black ribbon trim. All three girls wore black ballet flats on their feet.

The maid put the clothes on the foot of Hermione's bed and disappeared; the two lackeys pushed Ginny and Luna into the room and did likewise, leaving Madam Serpens alone with the three young witches.

"You will dress in your uniforms and wait here for the arrival of your esteemed… _benefactor_," the Madam said with a drawl and smirk that rivaled those of the wizard who had just spent a million Galleons on the purchase of the three young witches. "He will be coming to collect you shortly, and then you will be out of my hair. You will be his problem to deal with, and I for one wish him luck. Three more willful little bitches I've never met, but then, if anyone is capable of handling ones such as you three, it will be Severus Snape."

Another cruel smile curved her lips as she added, her eyes catching and holding Hermione's as if she knew something about the Potions Master's plans for the Muggleborn witch, "And I've heard that he can be quite…_rough_. None of my girls want to service him alone, because none of them are able to handle him well enough to last more than one night with him. And during those legendary Death Eater revels, the Dark Lord doesn't like to give him the Muggle whores until after they've been passed round the others, because he's so harsh that when he's through with them they're naught but limp bodies. Of course, being that harsh with the lot of you would be a waste of a fortune, so you don't have to worry about him killing you. Though you might wish he would." And with those cheerful parting words, the Madam turned and left the room, shutting the door behind her and raising the wards again.

The three girls looked at each other silently, wondering how much of the Madam's words to believe. Ginny was wondering about the look the Madam had given Hermione during the second part of her speech, while Luna was wondering about the look Professor Snape had given Hermione right after he'd revealed himself, and Hermione was wondering how the hell she was going to protect Ginny and Luna without a wand. Perhaps she could bargain with Snape…would he agree to leave them alone in exchange for Hermione's willingness to submit? It might be her only hope.

The three girls dressed quickly, all of them eager to get out of their uncomfortably revealing clothing and into something more concealing. As the dresses and shoes they'd been auctioned off in landed on the floor, they vanished. The witches were just pulling on their flats when the wards shimmered yet again, this time alerting them to the arrival of a stranger who had permission to enter from the Madam, and they all straightened and came to stand side by side just in time for the door to open, revealing none other than their purchaser himself.

Severus paused in the open doorway, accompanied by Mindy, the house elf Dumbledore had assigned to help him in his spying, and took in the triad of young witches standing side by side in front of him. The two taller ones, the Weasley and Lovegood girls, flanked the petite older girl, and he couldn't decide if they looked more like they were standing on either side of her in a gesture of support and protection, or like they were staying close to her that _she _might protect _them._

Hermione didn't know how long the four of them stood there, Snape watching the three of them and the three of them watching him. But finally, he was the one to break the silence. "I have completed the transactions required for your purchase. You will now accompany me to Prince Manor. We have much to discuss."

His words, and the sheer presumption that colored them, brought Hermione back to her senses with a thump. She took a step forward, putting herself between him and Ginny and Luna, who both silently stepped to fill the space she'd left. When it came to potentially sticky situations, they both knew to allow Hermione to take charge and follow her lead.

"We're not going anywhere until we get some answers. Who the bloody hell do you think you are, just charging in and thinking you can _buy_ us like—like slaves! You're supposed to be our teacher! What kind of teacher walks into a brothel where three of his students are being held against their will and _buys_ them?!" the small Gryffindor firecracker demanded.

Fully aware that their conversation was most likely being listened to, either by Elapida Serpens or by someone who would report every word to her, he entered the room and shut the door before he responded coldly, his face impassive but his eyes burning at them, trying to convey in silence that they needed to trust him. "What kind do you think, you silly girl?" he responded in his best Potions-Master-of-the-Dungeons voice. "What kind of teacher do you _think_ walks into a brothel that is clearly associated with the House of Salazar Slytherin, that exclusively caters to members of the Pureblooded Elite, and that openly caters to Death Eaters? What kind of teacher do you _think_ walks into such an establishment where three of his students are being held captive and purchases them for _permanent addition_ to his household?"

He paused here, and knew that to any eavesdroppers it would appear as if he were pausing to let that information sink in. But as he met first Miss Lovegood's and then Miss Weasley's gazes with his own, he used his powers of Legilimency to add silently to each of them in turn, **_The kind of teacher whose loyalty lies with Albus Dumbledore, who provides the Order of the Phoenix with information on the Dark Lord's plans, and who cannot abide the thought of three of the students in his charge being sold into a life of sexual slavery at the dubious mercy of the real Death Eaters._**

He left their minds as suddenly as he'd entered, leaving the two younger girls reeling with what he'd just told them. Leaving them to ponder his trustworthiness on their own for the moment, he captured and held Hermione's eyes with his own, entering her mind with as little warning as he'd given her friends. But to his shock, what appeared to be a set of massive wooden doors slammed shut in front of him a fraction of a second before he found himself being expelled violently from her mind.

She glared at him, enraged. "How dare you?" she shouted. "I DID NOT GIVE YOU PERMISSION TO ENTER MY MIND!" She stormed over to him and raised her hand to crack him across the face, but his reflexes were sharp enough that he was able to capture her wrist in a bruising grasp, just millimeters from his face.

"It would be most unwise for you to strike me, Miss Granger. Do not attempt to do so again. As for your desire for answers, you are in no position to make demands. None of the three of you is currently in possession of a wand, while I am. As such, I am fully capable of taking all three of you to Prince Manor by force if I must, whether you like it or not. As it is, since Miss Weasley and Miss Lovegood were wise enough to have offered no resistance thus far, I shall deal with you first." Without taking his eyes off Hermione, he summoned the house elf that had accompanied him. "Mindy!"

"Yes, Master Snape?" the house elf responded demurely as she stepped forward. Unlike most female house elves, who had high-pitched squeaky voices that grated on Severus's nerves, Mindy's voice was in a lower register, much closer to that of a human. Her voice was similar in pitch to that of an adolescent human girl, older than a young child but still with a ways to go before her voice reached the fullness and richness of an adult woman.

"Take Miss Weasley and Miss Lovegood to Prince Manor and show them to their rooms, then take their evening meal to them," he ordered. Though his face was expressionless and his tone abrupt, Mindy knew him well enough to know that he was only speaking to her this way – as if to a slave – to keep up appearances. It was only when no one else was around that he allowed himself to show his true, softer side. "If they feel they _must_ draw comfort from one another, you may allow them to be together, but if they attempt to escape or otherwise cause any other trouble, you will separate them. As for Miss Granger, I will be taking her myself and will be dealing with her in my study."

Mindy bowed her head. "Yes, Master Snape. Mindy will be taking the Missies now, and will have Master's dinner ready when he is finished with Missy Granger." With that, she stepped forward, around Hermione, and took hold of Ginny's and Luna's wrists in her gentle hands. With a crack, she and the two girls were gone.

When the three had vanished, Severus, who still hadn't broken his hold on Hermione's eyes or wrist, spoke directly to her. "And now, little witch," he said, and she had to suppress a shudder at the way his voice deepened and took on a dark undertone. "It is time you learned a lesson." He chose his words deliberately, knowing how anyone eavesdropping would probably take them and that it was vital they kept that impression.

He saw a flicker of fear deep in Hermione's gaze, behind the defiance, fury, and resentment that were still there, and wished he could reassure her. But he couldn't do so here without giving his position away, and he wasn't sure she would believe his words anyway. But once they were in the study at Prince Manor, he hoped to show her something that would clear all her doubts.

So without giving her a chance to do or say anything else, he took hold of her, picked her up so suddenly she squeaked in surprise, and tossed her over one broad shoulder. He made certain he had a secure hold around the upper thighs of the struggling witch, forced his attention away from the fact that her arse loomed tantalizingly close to his face, and turned on the spot, Disapparating with a crack.

They appeared seconds later in a room that was unfamiliar to Hermione; she was so enraged that she barely took note of the fact that the room possessed even more books upon the shelves lining its walls than the Grimmauld Place library, though fewer than the Hogwarts library. But before she could catch more than that fleeting glimpse, she was deposited rather unceremoniously on her feet before him.

By this point Hermione was so infuriated with his overbearing, abominable behavior that her normally sound judgment was rather lacking. For the second time that evening – or in the seven years she'd known him, for that matter – she tried to strike the Potions Master. Once more he caught her wrist in his hand, and when she tried to lash out with her other hand, he captured that one too, and the two started a furious struggle for control.

"You bastard!" she raged. "No right—you have _no right—_who the fucking hell do you think you are—no one treats me like this—completely lost your bloody mind!"

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Severus acknowledged how truly magnificent she was when she was angry. The young Gryffindor lioness was certainly a little hellcat. He began to think that the man who'd been extolling the particular attributes of the three witches on the auction platform had hit the nail on the head when he'd said that while Hermione Granger might be hard to break, she'd be worth the effort. Any man – or he himself, if he had his way – who landed her in his bed was in for a wild ride. He found himself getting excited at the thought. But he knew he'd have to be patient and wait.

Still, even as these thoughts swirled around his head, his grip was unrelenting; the girl wasn't going anywhere he didn't want her to. However, she nearly undid him when she tried to knee him in the groin.

Abruptly, he lost his patience with her. He whirled her around so that she faced away from him, transferring his bruising grip from her wrists to her upper arms. Then he drove her forward, pushing her inexorably toward his desk with his body, and when her hips slammed into the edge of the desk, pinned there by his own hips, he pulled her arms behind her back and pinned them there with one of his large, strong hands before planting his other between her shoulder blades and pushing her down so that she stood bent over the desk with her stomach and chest pressed to the surface of the desk. And this time he didn't even fight his body's reaction to their provocative position.

Hermione was terrified by now and thinking she shouldn't have tried to hit him. It was becoming more clear to her by the minute whose side he was on, and the last hope she had of protecting her virginity vanished. Oh, yes, she could feel his intentions for her pressed hard against her backside.

"I have had enough of your attacks, witch," he growled at her. "You are in desperate need of a lesson in manners." He punctuated that statement by grinding his now prominent erection against her arse as he ground out the word "manners."

He reached for the shallow stone basin that sat on his desk, keeping his hold on her wrists and her body pinned to the desk with his other hand. "But for now, I suppose I will settle for proving to you once and for all that not all is as it seems. Soon, witch, you will thank me for pulling you and your two friends out of that brothel, no matter how I did it."

He pulled out his wand and raised it to his temple, using it to draw out thick, silvery strands of memory that slithered into the stone basin. When the last memory fell into the Pensieve, he returned his wand to the pocket of his cloak before taking Hermione in a more comfortable but no less secure hold and plunging with her into the Pensieve.

* * *

So how many people understood Elapida Serpens's name? Smile if you got it!

Comments make me happy, and constructive criticism makes me happier, so feel free to be honest! (Just don't be rude, or you'll be pointedly ignored)

RP.


	4. Memories

__Disclaimer: Still not JKR. Still don't own Potterland or the characters in it. The only characters that are mine are the brothel characters and Mindy the house elf.

This story is still rated M. And this chapter is where things start to heat up, so you more prudish readers beware.

* * *

_Chapter Three_

_~Memories~_

When they finally returned from their trip into the Pensieve, Hermione was so overwhelmed by what she'd seen and heard that she didn't even notice right at first that she was still bent over the desk with the Professor pressed against her behind her. The only difference was that her arms, rather than being pinned behind her back, now rested on the desk before her while his, rather than pinning her down, now braced him against the edge of the desk.

She was breathing hard, trying to work through everything she'd witnessed in the Pensieve and reconcile the man in the Pensieve with the man who'd just purchased her and her two friends from a brothel. She was quickly coming to realize that he'd done so not for his own perverse benefit but to save them from a terrible fate at the hands of Pureblood supremacist supporters of Voldemort.

She was filled with a rapidly dwindling sense of confusion – dwindling because she was, after all, intelligent enough to make sense of everything she'd seen – and an increasing sense of relief. He'd been on their side the entire time.

As she worked through what she'd seen, she was filled suddenly with pain for the young man he'd been, the one who had loved so deeply and unconditionally and who had, with one single mistake, unraveled the one good relationship he had. That that relationship had been with a witch who had clearly not been as selfless in her love as he only made the pain Hermione felt for him all the keener. As virtuous as Lily Potter had been painted by all who knew her, Hermione was bitterly disappointed in the witch she'd admired for so long. Lily had never forgiven Severus, even with his heartfelt apologies and everything he'd tried to do to make up for it.

Hermione knew that if it had been Harry or Ron to insult her like that, well, sure, she'd be pissed, but she knew she'd eventually forgive them. Snape had lashed out in the heat of the moment, subjected to immense humiliation at the hands of the Marauders – and Hermione's disappointment in _them_ was another matter entirely – and his pride was really all he had left. What was he to do, beg Lily for help while hanging upside down with his underwear on display? The injustice of it all nearly brought tears of rage to Hermione's eyes. _Oh, just you wait, Sirius Black, _she thought. _You are in a world of trouble when I get a hold of you!_

And at last, she understood why Snape had _purchased_ her and her two friends rather than whisking them out of the brothel in some dramatic escape, or indeed, leaving them at the dubious mercies of the pureblooded monsters who would have bought them otherwise. He was, in fact, loyal to Dumbledore, but he was also a spy who could not afford to have his cover blown. For him to make such a purchase was a brilliant maneuver, she thought, though she found the fact that there was a high chance she, Ginny, and Luna wouldn't be allowed their freedom but would remain his "captives" until the end of the war a hard pill to swallow.

"Please, sir," she said lowly, "let me up. This position is rather uncomfortable and I'd prefer to speak to you face-to-face."

Severus forced back the humorless laugh that bubbled up at her words. Uncomfortable indeed. The witch had no idea. Then again, he was pressed against her. Most likely she could feel every bit of how "uncomfortable" he really was. He was surprised she hadn't remarked on it yet in all her Gryffindorish brashness.

Oddly, the thought crossed his mind that he'd quite prefer to remain where he was, only with the added bonus of having no clothing between them. He filed that errant thought away in a drawer marked "Examine Later", fully intending to act on that thought at some point in the future, and for the time being complied with her request. He stepped back just enough to allow her to straighten and turn around.

As Hermione straightened and turned, she blinked to find herself still uncomfortably close to Professor Snape, but with the desk at her back, there wasn't any room for her to back away. She forced herself not to quail under his penetrating gaze.

She met his gaze squarely, and he was surprised at the pain he saw in her bright brown gaze. "Please, sir, I just want to say that I'm sorry for the way we all treated you as students. I'm sorry for always assuming the worst and that you just hated everyone for no good reason. Obviously you had plenty of reason." Her eyes dropped from his after she said that.

Severus waited for her to say more, surprised at her subdued manner when he'd expected her to be full of righteous wrath and overbearing compassion on his behalf. But she fell silent.

"I can honestly say I'm shocked, Miss Granger. I expected something of a tirade, perhaps full of righteous anger on my behalf at the injustice of it all. I believe this is the most succinct and to the point you've ever been," he found himself drawling, quite without having entirely decided to speak at all.

At this, her eyes rose again, and he was interested to note a faint spark of the spirit that had been present when she'd initially refused to go anywhere with him without getting some answers.

"I'm not blind, sir, I saw enough in that Pensieve to know that if I had said more, you'd have told me in no uncertain terms what I could do with my righteous anger, so there isn't any point in saying more," she said archly. "It won't undo what's happened in the past, and I'm certainly not expecting you to suddenly start treating me any different. I'm not stupid enough to think just because I understand a little more than I did before that you're really a sweet, affectionate person and that we'll be best friends. Just consider yourself lucky I'm a bit wiser than I was in the days when I tried to champion house-elf rights by pushing for wages and sick leave for them. I'll settle for showing you more respect when my natural instinct would be to give you a hug. Because I know you'd most likely hex me if I tried that."

Against his will, he found himself smirking. She was certainly right about that one. "Very well, Miss Granger, I propose a compromise. I will accept your respect if you promise to refrain from any such overenthusiastic expressions of compassion."

"Done, sir. I promise not to try and hug you. Or let myself become enraged over how you've been treated. Or anything like that." She looked to him for confirmation that this was acceptable, and he nodded.

"Well, if that's it, then can I see Ginny and Luna now? They're probably worried," she said, frowning. Her two friends still didn't know what was going on.

He frowned as well, though not in concern but in disapproval. "I would prefer you tell them as little as possible of what's going on. This ruse needs to be believable."

She scowled. "They're not idiots, sir. They'll understand as well as I did. And they'll be able to help keep up the ruse. In fact, with them aware, it'll be easier for me to keep it up, too. Having grown up with six older brothers to blame for any troublemaking, Ginny's an excellent actress. Better than me. And everyone who doesn't know Luna very well will assume that she's so spacey that anything she says could be as true as the next thing she says could be false. She sees a person for who they are on the inside much better than most other people. She's probably had a better idea of your true loyalties all along than most of us. I think not telling them what's going on will be a mistake. They know me well enough that they'll know something's up; I'm just not good enough of an actress to fool them. Harry and Ron, perhaps, but not them."

Severus considered for a moment. What she'd said about her two friends was true enough. Miss Weasley certainly was an accomplished actress, better indeed than Miss Granger, who was passable. And Miss Lovegood was one of the very few students he could safely say he got on amicably enough with. He'd always had a feeling she saw more of a person than they ever showed, consciously or otherwise. And if he were honest with himself, he would admit that Miss Granger herself was certainly no slouch when it came to understanding people; their perceptions of each other were most likely colored by Severus's dislike of her two male friends.

"Very well, but you ought to know, the Dark Lord will hear about the purchase sooner or later, and he will expect me to present you to him." He held up a hand to forestall her outraged protest, and continued. "Be thankful I am so favored with him, for unlike most Death Eaters who take such captives, I will not have to share my…_spoils_ with him or anyone else. You do not have to worry about any of the Death Eaters laying a finger on you or your friends. But as you will be presented as my captives, that is how I expect the three of you to behave on those occasions where I am required to show you off. It should not be too difficult. Just behave as if you would give anything to be anywhere else and as if you want nothing to do with anyone there."

Hermione nodded slowly, a faint frown creasing her brow and her teeth worrying her lip as she considered. Severus found himself oddly enchanted by the sight of that lip flushing red with the blood filling it. "I expect all that will be true at any rate, so yes, we can do that. Please, may I see them now?"

He shook himself of his slight trance brought on by the sight of her chewing on her lip. "Very well. When you leave this room, call for Mindy and she will take you to them. Tell her I also wish for her to bring you your evening meal. Later, after we have all eaten, I will send for the three of you so that I may speak to all of you about what to expect of the coming days."

"Thank you, sir." She turned to leave the library, pausing for a brief moment to look for the door, and then moved toward it. But before she could open it, she paused and turned to look at him again, her expression filled with curiosity and trepidation. "You said Voldemort will learn about you purchasing us sooner or later. Will he…expect proof that…"

"That I purchased you with the intent of turning you into sex slaves for my personal pleasure?" he asked bluntly. She blushed at his words. "Yes, he will." His gaze caught and held hers. "Most likely, a memory of an encounter."

Her face flushed and her eyes widened as she took a step back. Her tongue darted out to wet suddenly dry lips, the sight sending much of the blood in his body rushing south, and when she spoke, her tone was nervous. "And you're good at fabricating memories like those?" she asked tentatively, sounding hopeful.

He shook his head slowly. "That is exceedingly difficult to do, and I have no intention of fabricating a memory anyway."

Hermione felt her knees buckle slightly and was thankful she still held the doorknob of the door leading from the library. Tightening her grip on it, she was able to keep herself upright. Surely he couldn't mean…

She searched his gaze for any hidden meanings, and was dismayed to realize he meant exactly what she thought he meant. But then, she thought of Ginny and Luna, and found her courage again. No matter his intentions for her, he still wasn't touching either of them.

She stiffened and met his eyes squarely. "Fine. But you should know, then, _sir,_ I'll see you in hell before you lay one bloody finger on Luna or Ginny." She turned to leave.

His next words stopped her cold, again before she could open the door. "I have no interest in Miss Weasley or Miss Lovegood." His response, delivered slowly and precisely, was heavy with meaning and dark with promise.

Hermione froze and turned to look at him again, now gripping the doorknob tightly in an effort to keep her balance. Her lips parted as she found it suddenly difficult to breathe with him looking at her that way, his face impassive but those glittering black eyes catching and holding hers. Odd how she'd once thought his black eyes to be cold and hard; the heat and promise held within them was unmistakable.

She couldn't suppress a shudder. Her next words tumbled out, despite the fact that she knew he'd take them as a challenge and that challenging him was a very bad idea. "I'll never let you."

His nostrils flared, and suddenly he rather resembled a wolf scenting its prey. "What makes you think you can stop me?" he inquired silkily as he began to stalk forward.

"The fact that I saw in the Pensieve that while you pretend you hate your students, you truly care about them and I know you'd never rape one," she replied instantly. She forced herself not to shrink back as he got closer.

"What makes you think it would be rape?" he asked smoothly as he crowded her against the door.

This time she managed to suppress her shudder. "But what makes you think I'll let you, rape or not?" she countered, meeting his gaze defiantly.

His deep chuckle seemed to make its way straight down her spine to that secret place between her legs, where it settled in a gathering pool of heat and moisture. "My dear, you won't be able to resist."

With that, he seized her jaw in one large hand and kissed her hard. It was long enough that soon her head began to spin dizzily. His mouth forced hers open, and her half-hearted resistance was swept away as his tongue surged into her mouth to engage hers.

Her head spun even more wildly, and her knees buckled, suddenly refusing to support her any longer. His arms swept around her and held her up as he plundered the deepest reaches of her mouth with his tongue. Her hands came up and fisted in his shirt, anchoring her to him, as if she feared she'd float away if she didn't hold on, as she desperately tried to keep up with him. When he finally pulled his mouth from hers to allow them both to breathe, he smirked in satisfaction at the sight of her flushed face, glazed eyes, red, swollen lips, and heaving bosom. She looked appropriately as though she had just been well and thoroughly kissed, and abruptly he decided that before the week was out she would look appropriately as though she had just been well and thoroughly fucked.

For now, though, he would let her go, and satisfied himself with knowing that eventually, she'd submit to him willingly. In addition, he'd now made it impossible for her to brush him aside. He'd made his intentions perfectly clear, and he'd also made it clear to her that he knew exactly how to make her body respond to him in the way he wanted. She would go off and join her friends now, but later, when she was alone, she wouldn't be able to help remembering the kiss and wondering how long it would be before he tried to take things further. _Not long, my dear. You'll be mine by the time the week is out._

Silently, he put her down and removed her hands from his shirt. Then he put his hands on her shoulders and turned her around. With one hand still on her shoulder, he opened the door with his free hand. "Go find your friends, Miss Granger. I will speak to the three of you later," he said, sounding completely as though nothing had just occurred between them.

He didn't give her a chance to respond as he called for Mindy.

"Yes, Master Severus?" the elf responded as she appeared before them. Now that they were in the privacy of Snape Manor, she reverted to calling him what she'd called him since he was a young boy and she his caretaker. He'd tried many times to break her of calling him Master Severus instead of just Severus, but at least she didn't call him Master Snape or simply Master as she had his father.

"Please take Miss Granger to see her friends, and take her evening meal to her as well. Have you given the other two girls their dinner yet?" he asked.

"Yes. Missy Ginny and Missy Luna is eating together in Missy Ginny's room. Mindy will take Missy Granger to them and will bring her dinner to her as well. Is you ready for your own dinner?" the house elf replied.

"Yes, Mindy, I am. I will take my dinner here in my study. When Miss Weasley, Miss Lovegood, and Miss Granger have finished eating, please ask them to remain together until I send for them, as I wish to speak with all three of them here in my study when I have also finished."

"Yes, sir. Come, Missy Granger," the elf said to Hermione, gently touching the witch's arm as an indication for her to follow. The elf turned and began to walk away.

When Hermione, still disoriented and befuddled by the kiss, made no move to follow Mindy, Severus smirked and put his hand on the small of her back, nudging her forward.

She looked up at him, and his satisfaction grew as he saw the dazed look that still lingered in her eyes as well as the flush that lingered in her cheeks and the redness of her swollen lips. "Go. Enjoy your meal and the company of your friends," was all he said.

Silently she obeyed, turning to follow the retreating house elf and deciding she'd try to deal with Severus later when she was less disoriented.

* * *

Ta-da! There you go. Hopefully that will satisfy everyone for the time-being.

Note: Before anyone asks, yes, both Sirius and Dumbledore are alive in this story, though Remus is not. I'm slightly annoyed with myself for killing off Remus but keeping Sirius alive, but I can't bring myself to change it. Besides, Hermione needs one of the Marauders alive to vent at for how they treated Severus. And while Remus didn't try as hard as he should have to stop it, he never really participated in the cruel treatment of Severus. I was always much more upset with Sirius for that. So I kept him alive. He's gonna get his, you wait and see. But don't worry, we still like Sirius in this story, so while Hermione is definitely going to bring down the wrath of angels on his head when she sees him again, he's not going to be an ass like he was when he was a kid.


	5. Mindy

Eh, so I finally updated. Gosh, I tell ya, that writer's block? Mine is more like a brick wall fifty feet high. Be proud of me?

Anyway, you know the drill. My initials are RP13, not JKR. Not even my real initials are JKR. They're actually ACS, but I'm not tellin' you anything else. Getting off topic. I'm not JKR, and the only thing in this chapter that's mine is Mindy.

Also, I probably should have said something earlier, but the phrase "in-outie" is not mine either. I've actually read it a couple of times in other stories; the only problem is, I can't remember which ones.

* * *

_Chapter Four_

_~Mindy~_

As Hermione followed Mindy, her mind whirled with the events of the past…had it only been five hours? Five hours since she, Ginny, and Luna had been abruptly informed by Elapida Serpens that they were to be sold? During that time, they had been tossed into tubs, steamed and scrubbed, dried, made-up, and wrestled into dresses they never would have dreamed of wearing in public. Then they'd been rounded up, tied together, and magicked away onto a rotating platform to be examined like so much horseflesh at an auction. Actually, she had the feeling that horses would have had a better chance of being treated properly by that lot. And to top it all off, their final purchaser was their former Potions teacher.

She found herself thinking back to her first days under the tutelage of Professor Snape. Back then her greatest concern had been earning his praise the way she'd earned the praise of her other professors. _Poor innocent little girl,_ she thought with a touch of self-mockery. _If I had known then that the Professor whose praise I sought would someday _buy_ me in a brothel for his own personal pleasure, I'd have run away screaming._

And yet, she had to remind herself that he'd made the purchase as part of a ruse. As he'd said himself, he couldn't very well simply burst into the brothel in a blaze of wand-waving and flashy curses and just spirit the three of them away. He had to keep his cover. Hence the purchase of the three of them.

_But,_ that same self-mocking voice hissed, _what about the part where he said Voldemort would require a memory of an encounter as proof of the purchase and that he had no intention of fabricating a memory? What about the heat you saw in his eyes when he looked at you? What about that kiss that _stole your breath? _What part of the ruse was that?_

She was becoming less and less sure of what was what. What was truth and what was part of the ruse, and what was lost somewhere in the shades of gray that blurred the lines between truth and ruse? Yes, Professor Snape had saved the three of them from a terrible fate at the hands of Death Eaters, and had revealed himself, to her at least, as a spy working for Dumbledore. But he'd said he would need to show Voldemort a memory of a sexual encounter as proof that he'd purchased the three witches, that he had no intention of fabricating such a memory, and that he had no interest in Ginny or Luna. So did he intend to have sex with her just to create a viable memory for Voldemort? Was that part of the ruse as well? Or did he only say that bit about creating a memory of a sexual encounter in order to cover up his own secret agenda? Oh, gods, what if he intended to let Ginny and Luna go but keep her for his own use as payment for rescuing them from a harsher fate?

Poor Hermione's head was starting to spin and she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown when she dimly registered the sound of a voice speaking. She came back to reality with a thump to realize that Mindy the house elf was speaking to her.

"I'm sorry, Mindy, my mind was elsewhere. What did you say?" she said.

"I said I hopes Missy Granger won't mind me saying so, but I thinks Missy Granger will be good for the Master. I is not seeing Master Severus take such interest in a real Missy in many years. Only females Master Severus ever takes an interest in works in brothels. They is not proper Missies, and the only thing Master Severus wants them for is the in-outie. 'To relieve the ache for a while,' I has heard Master Severus say to his friends. But Missy Granger is a real Missy, a proper Missy who is fit for Master Severus to take an interest in for more than the in-outie." The house-elf said all this very quickly and earnestly, her huge green eyes wide and honest as she met Hermione's gaze. The witch was silent for a moment, having to take a moment to process what she'd just heard and make certain she'd heard correctly.

When she realized she had indeed heard correctly, Hermione's heart constricted at the innocence of the monologue the house elf had just given her. How ironic that, after years of being interested only in whores and only for "the in-outie," the one time Severus Snape took an interest in a proper girl, it was for "the in-outie" and no more.

"I'm afraid you're mistaken, Mindy," Hermione said, sounding pained. Tears shimmered in her eyes but she refused to let them fall. "That is all he _does_ want me for. He's made it perfectly clear that he expects to keep me for his own pleasure as repayment for having rescued me and my two friends from a crueler fate at the hands of crueler people."

The house elf frowned and then stopped, clearly thinking hard about something. Finally, though, she looked back at Hermione and shook her head. "No, I is knowing Master Severus all his life. I knows when Master Severus is taking a real interest in something. I knows when he is only interested in the in-outie with a woman and when he is interested in other things, even if he does not know what he is interested in. I knows Master Severus is interested in Missy Granger for more than the in-outie, though Master Severus is not knowing it himself. If Missy Granger can find it in her heart to give my poor, lonely Master a chance, Missy will be the best thing ever to happen to Master Severus. Missy Granger can take the Master's heart, which is broken by the red-headed Missy with green eyes many years ago, and make it whole again."

Her head still spinning, now from this new information added to the events that had already transpired, all Hermione could think of to say in response was, "Please, my name is Hermione."

Mindy nodded sagely. "Missy Hermione will be good for my Master. Soon Missy is bringing my Master out of his loneliness." She smiled widely then, her eyes taking on a surprising and disconcertingly familiar twinkle. It was just like the twinkle Albus Dumbledore wore in his blue eyes. "And soon Master Severus is teaching the Missy many things, many wonderful things about the in-outie."

Hermione halted in her tracks, her mouth popping open incredulously. Mindy did not stop walking, however, so Hermione was forced to jog to catch up.

"Wait, what makes you think I need to be taught anything about – about sex?" she spluttered.

Mindy smiled, her eyes alight with a hint of triumph. "Well, for one thing, Missy Hermione is faltering when she is saying 'sex.' People who is used to having the in-outie has no problems talking about it. And also, after Master Severus is making the purchase of the three Missies, he is summoning me and telling me what is going on so I is knowing to prepare the Manor for the Missies' arrival. When I is asking why Master Severus has spent so much money, he is telling me why the three Missies is costing so much. He is telling me that Missy Hermione costs so much because Missy Hermione is a great and powerful witch and Harry Potter would be dead without her, and also because Missy Hermione is a virgin."

"Oh." Hermione felt slightly foolish, and from the sudden warmth filling her face, she knew her embarrassment showed.

Mindy nodded sagely once more, and the two were silent as they continued walking. Hermione was wondering just how large Prince Manor was – they'd been walking for quite some time now – when Mindy spoke again. This time, her voice was sincere and perhaps tinged with a bit of hesitation. "I hopes the Missies will enjoy their stay, and that Missy Hermione will give my poor lonely Master a chance. I knows he can be…difficult…and sometimes frightening, but Master Severus is a good man. I knows you will fight with him, for you is as stubborn as he is and you is not letting people push you about. But if you stands up to him and lets him know right away that you is not afraid of him and he is not to be walking all over you, he will quickly learn to respect you. And Master Severus is not a man who is simply using a good girl and then tossing her aside, even if he is thinking he only wants Missy Hermione for the in-outie. Deep down, he is too honorable. If Missy Hermione is patient, you is slowly going to teach him how to love again."

Tears pricked the corners of Hermione's eyes at the sheer faith in the house-elf's words and at the memory of some of the things she'd seen in the Pensieve. How she wished she could give Lily Potter, the Marauders, and even Severus's parents a piece of her mind.

She took a deep breath, and said, "I wish I had the same faith in myself that you do, Mindy. I'm certain Professor Snape still has the capacity to love again, deep down, but I don't think he would ever love me. I was one of his most annoying students, and my best friend is the son of the man he hated most in the world when he was younger. I'll think about what you've said, and I will go to him when he calls, because it will help him maintain his ruse as a Death Eater and it will keep him and my two friends safe for a little longer. But I don't think I can let myself love a man who only wants me for sex, no matter how much I might want to."

Mindy nodded with a soft, sad little sigh. "It is a start, Missy Hermione. And you will see. Master Severus will prove me right, I knows it. House-elves has a sixth sense. Soon I thinks Missy will give him a precious gift that is making him see how special you is and how much he can love you. And when Missy sees how much he will love you, you will let yourself love him back."

Before Hermione could say anything in response, they reached a closed wooden door in the middle of the second floor hallway they were currently in. Mindy seemed to shake herself free of the wistfulness that had crept into her voice halfway through that last little speech, and said, "Here we is. This is the Missy Ginny's room. Missy Luna's is next door to the right, at the end of the hall."

"Where is my room?"

Mindy looked at her out of the corners of her eyes, as if she feared to turn her head and face Hermione fully. "Missy Hermione is staying down the other end of the hall, on the other side of the Grand Staircase."

Hermione's eyebrows drew together in confusion. "Why is it so far away? Is there not another bedroom closer to Ginny and Luna?"

Mindy answered slowly and, it seemed, rather reluctantly. "Yes, there is more rooms down this end, but I has orders to put Missy Hermione in a different room." She paused, and a feeling of dread settled into the pit of Hermione's stomach. Mindy's next words made her vision spin. "Master Severus says there is no point to give Missy Hermione a room of her own when she is sleeping in Master Severus's bed."

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Er, so I know this one is really short, but I kind of think this chapter couldn't have a better ending than Mindy's little revelation there. If anyone else has any doubts as to where this story is going, hopefully this chapter will make you chuck them out the window. But no worries, this story won't be completely predictable - all you really know, or should know, is that this is a Hermione-Severus romance. They end up together. If they didn't, I wouldn't call it a Hermione-Severus story. As for the rest of the plot, I intend to break a _lot_ of rules. Everybody's personalities will be pretty much spot-on (Maybe H. is a _little_ more self-assured and maybe S. is _slightly_ more soft-hearted than JKR makes him, but otherwise I adhere to her genius regarding the characters' personalities) but in terms of relationships, both familial and romantic, well, prepare for surprises. Let me know what you think._  
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	6. Conversations

Be proud of me, I managed an update before the end of 2012! Think of it as a combination belated Christmas/early New Year/not-the-end-of-the-world-after-all present!

Disclaimer: I solemnly swear that I am not JKR and do not own a single thing in this story except Mindy the House Elf, Elapida Serpens, and the Silver Serpent.

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_Chapter Five_

_~Conversations~_

Her head spinning dizzily, Hermione struggled to remain upright. Seemingly oblivious to the witch's plight, Mindy took advantage of the moment of silence and knocked on the door in front of which the two of them stood, paused for a moment as if to give the two girls in the room a chance to prepare themselves for a visitor, and then opened the door.

Ginny and Luna looked up from where they sat on the large, canopied bed, having been talking quietly after finishing their meal. Their two dinner trays sat empty and abandoned on the ornate coffee table adorning the sitting area off to one side of the room.

When they saw who was at the door, they both greeted Mindy quietly, harboring no resentment toward the warm, hospitable house-elf who was only following her master's orders, no matter how they distrusted their captor and feared how he was treating Hermione. But then they both looked beyond Mindy and spotted the witch who still stood a couple feet back in dazed shock.

"Hermione!" they both exclaimed, looking relieved to see that she appeared to be unharmed.

The sound of her name being called seemed to bring their friend out of her daze, for she blinked and stepped forward, peering into the room. They noticed that she didn't seemed particularly surprised to see them, and though there was relief in her expression, it didn't seem as though she'd feared overmuch for their safety, which made them wonder. That, coupled with the fact that she still looked somewhat preoccupied with thoughts they couldn't even begin to guess at, made them wonder what it was she knew that they didn't. What had Snape told her that seemed to reassure her of their safety but leave her still upset?

Before anyone could say anything else, however, Mindy spoke. "Mindy will return soon with Missy Hermione's meal. Missy Ginny and Missy Luna has already eaten. After Missy Hermione has eaten, I is going to take you to my Master. Master Severus is wishing to speak with the three Missies." So saying, she bowed and backed out of the room, closing the door.

"Ginny, Luna…" Hermione said, her voice trailing off. "Are you alright? Mindy said the two of you were here, together, and that she brought you your meals."

"We're fine, Hermione," Ginny replied soothingly. She patted the bed beside her, indicating that Hermione should come sit between them. "Mindy brought us both into the hallway and showed us where we'll be staying, then said we could eat together in one room or the other if we liked. She said we'd be pretty much free to do as we pleased while we're here as long as we didn't try to escape and informed someone if we were going to leave the house and go onto the grounds. She said if we did try to escape, she'd been ordered to separate us and bind us to the house. As it is, we're only bound to the grounds, and that's just because the wards won't allow us to leave them."

As Hermione sat between the two girls, they both took her hands, and she wasn't sure if the gesture was to reassure her or to comfort themselves. Luna's next words made her inclined to believe it was the latter. "Mindy's been nothing but pleasant and ever so kind, but she's not told us anything about what Professor Snape wanted with you. All she would tell us was that you wouldn't be harmed. We've been rather worried about you. Ginny could hardly eat. I was quite concerned as well." Her tone was thoughtful, but her usual dreamy expression was absent; instead, her eyes were wide and steady, seeming to drink in the features of Hermione's face. The older Gryffindor, having long since become used to the quirks of Luna's facial expressions and how emotions were displayed on her face in a way that was very different from most people, knew that Luna was seeking reassurance that Hermione was alright.

Hermione drew a shaky breath. How to tell them? she wondered wildly. How to tell them that they were safe from Snape, but the price had been her own body?

She was momentarily distracted from her thoughts, however, when she saw that neither of them was in their horrid brothel uniform. Instead, they wore what appeared to be Muggle clothing. Luna wore a simple, dove-gray cotton sundress, while Ginny wore a floaty white cotton skirt and a brown cap-sleeved top with lace along the modest neckline. Both were bare-foot, but Hermione noted two pairs of flats lying abandoned on the floor, one pair dark blue and the other brown. "Where did you get those clothes?" she said instead, mystified.

"My wardrobe," Ginny answered. "The clothes are spelled so that they alter themselves to fit whoever wears them. Do you want to change?"

Hermione nodded, grateful, however selfishly, for the chance to put off the uncomfortable topic for a bit in favor of getting out of the uncomfortable brothel uniform.

The two Gryffindors got up, Ginny leading Hermione over to the wardrobe that stood against the wall off to one side of the bed. She opened the doors, revealing a variety of clothing in a variety of colors and styles.

Hermione flipped through the various articles of clothing, automatically rejecting all dresses and skirts, searching for some pants. She needed the security, however feeble, provided by jeans. Thank the gods, there were some. She selected the most shapeless pair of dark-wash jeans she could find and put them with a plain black spaghetti-strap tank top and a dark, plum-colored pull-over sweater, with the intent of making herself as unappealing as possible.

Ginny and Luna watched Hermione select her clothes, the former with mounting confusion and the latter with utmost solemnity. Ginny didn't understand; while it was true Hermione never spent even half the amount of time Ginny did on her clothing and appearance, she also knew the older Gryffindor had an innate sense of classic taste. Except when she was lounging around her room, where she wore cotton tank tops and pajama shorts, Hermione's outfits were always timeless, simple and elegant, whether it was a pair of well-fitting jeans and a sweater in darker shades of bold reds, blues, purples, greens, browns, grays, or black or in muted shades of lighter colors or a cotton skirt and scoop-necked, cap-sleeved tee-shirt. So Ginny was utterly confused by Hermione's sudden desire for clothing that would make her look frumpy and twenty years older than her eighteen years.

Luna, however, watched with a growing suspicion that she was starting to understand what was going on. She recalled the way Professor Snape had looked at Hermione on the auction platform, as well as the way he hadn't taken his eyes off her back in her room at the brothel while instructing Mindy to take the other two witches to Prince Manor. She also recalled Hermione's uncharacteristic outburst of temper in reaction to the Professor's attempt to use Legilimency on her. Luna had the feeling she knew what Professor Snape wanted, though she wished she could believe he could never have such intentions toward a student, and she also had the feeling that Hermione wasn't entirely unaffected by the Professor's apparent desire but wanted to fight her own attraction.

Both girls, however, watched with interest how, as Hermione put the articles of clothing on, they adjusted themselves to flatter her body. The jeans changed shape until they sat low on her hips and clung to her hips and thighs, flaring out almost imperceptibly past the knee until, instead of being shapeless straight-leg jeans, they had changed to a more flattering boot-cut. The tank top clung to her torso like a second skin, made of a thin, stretchy material that hugged her body without being restrictively tight. The sweater, instead of hanging on her petite frame in a formless lump, shifted until it clung to the curves of her waist and hips and hugged her breasts, drawing attention to them instead of hiding them as her intention had been. The scoop-neck of the sweater, though high and modest, was also wide, and left more of her shoulders and collarbone bare than she would have liked. Its plum color complimented her medium skin tone and drew attention to her brilliant, agate-colored eyes

Hermione looked at her reflection in the full-length mirror on the inside of one of the wardrobe doors with dismay. She moved back to the clothing inside the wardrobe, intending to try something else, when Luna's voice stopped her. "It's no use, Hermione. It'll all change to fit your form. I think it's quite impossible for anything in that wardrobe to look unflattering."

"Luna and I tried on several different things when we first saw how the clothes changed. We wanted to be sure, and it's all been the same. All the clothes, even the stuff that was too big or too small, changed to fit us and make us look good." She tilted her head, looking at Hermione curiously. "I don't understand. Why would you want to make yourself look bad?"

Hermione hesitated with her answer, turning from her reflection in the mirror to look at the other two witches. Before she could answer, Luna asked something else. "Did Mindy show you your room? Where are you sleeping?"

At first, Hermione thought Luna had simply been trying to change the subject. But when she realized that Luna's gaze once again lacked the dreamy quality it usually held and was instead fixated unwaveringly on her friend's face, Hermione began to suspect that Luna saw more than the older witch had first thought.

"Yeah, we asked Mindy, but she never answered the question, so we figured that meant you'd be sleeping in the room on the other side of this one. Luna's room is next door, at the very end of the hall," Ginny supplied. She seemed to have forgotten about Hermione's intentions with the clothes.

Resigned, she knew she couldn't avoid the subject any longer. Instead of going back to sit on the bed, she went over to the sitting area and collapsed heavily into the one armchair, leaving the sofa for the other two girls. "I won't be sleeping next door," she started slowly, staring at the fire crackling merrily before them.

"Where then? Across the hall?" Ginny asked, tilting her head again.

Hermione shook her head, her thick curls shaking over her shoulders. "No, down the hall. In the Master bedroom." She took a deep breath, then met her friends' gazes, one at a time. She clasped her hands, linking her fingers together tightly and thrusting them between her thighs – which she kept rigidly together – to keep them from shaking. "It seems…it seems I will be sleeping with Professor Snape."

Ginny stared at her, mouth agape, while Luna looked on solemnly. "What?" the younger Gryffindor whispered, her face a picture of horror.

Hermione couldn't take the expression on Ginny's face. It only served to increase Hermione's tension and nerves regarding the whole idea. Though lately Hermione had become less inclined to chatter ceaselessly, having learned to say in only one or two sentences what once would have taken her an entire monologue to get out, now the words poured forth as she unburdened herself of all her concerns and fears regarding their former professor's intentions for her. She told them everything that had occurred since their departure from her room at the brothel, including his Apparating out of the room with her tossed over his shoulder, her physical attack of his person, his immobilizing her against the desk, their trip into the memories in his Pensieve, her apologies, his announcement of his intentions to _not_ fabricate a memory of a sexual encounter for the Dark Lord, his declaration that he had no such interest in Ginny or Luna, and his kiss. She finished with an explanation of her conversation with Mindy on the way up here.

When she was done talking, she was exhausted. She realized that at some point, Mindy must have come and gone, for there was a full tray of steaming food sitting on the table in front of her; the trays Ginny and Luna had eaten from were gone.

Now that she had unburdened herself, she found that she was famished, and fell into her meal with a gusto that was rather unusual for her; she usually ate with more dignity. When she had eaten her fill, she sat back, more relaxed and at peace with everything that had happened, and looked at her friends. Both of them had identical looks of shock on their faces.

She frowned. "What?"

Ginny no longer looked horrified; instead, the light in her wide eyes looked to Hermione suspiciously like awe. Hermione's suspicions only heightened when the beginnings of a smile began to transform Ginny's gaping mouth.

But before either Ginny or Luna could answer Hermione, another knock sounded at the door. It opened to reveal Mindy once again.

"Forgive the interruption, Missies, but Master Severus is telling me to bring you to him. He is wanting to speak to you. Is you finished eating, Missy Hermione?" the house elf asked.

Hermione's affirmative answer came before she could stop to think that if she lied and said no, she'd be able to buy more time in which to talk to Ginny and Luna.

"Then the Missies will please follow me. I is taking you to my Master now."

The three girls stood as one and followed Mindy from the room. They walked side by side, the younger two automatically shifting to flank Hermione. This time, unlike when they'd been sitting on Ginny's bed, it seemed the gesture was more to show her their support instead of to reassure themselves.

They all walked in silence until they reached the open door of the study. Mindy ushered them in and bade them wait; that was when they realized that Professor Snape was nowhere to be seen. There was a sofa in front of the fire which Mindy indicated they could use, but the three girls preferred to stand. Snape was far less intimidating when you faced him standing instead of sitting in front of him as he towered over you.

Mindy left the room, leaving the study door open; the silence grew to be too much, and Ginny spoke up at last.

"_Wow,_" the younger Gryffindor said softly. "I'm still reeling from everything you've told us. It's like something out of a romance novel."

In retrospect, Hermione might have known Ginny would come up with something like that to say. The youngest Weasley was far more of a romantic than the practical Hermione, who enjoyed a good romance herself but was far more capable of distinguishing between fiction and reality and, more importantly, accepting that real life was a hell of a lot less romantic than a novel. Though Hermione had so far had little experience with romance – always focusing more on her studies than boys – she knew enough from observing her parents and relatives that while romance certainly existed in real relationships, it was bloody hard work, and that was why a love like the one her parents shared was so worthwhile.

And this? The idea that she'd have to have sex with the man who essentially held them captive, purely for the sake of helping him keep his cover and protecting her friends, was about as unromantic an idea as she'd ever heard. After all, as far as everyone but the three girls, Mindy, and Snape himself was concerned, he'd spent a million Galleons on three sex toys, not a potential sweetheart and her two friends. Far more romantic – and far cheesier and far less realistic – would have been one of the three girls standing to defend herself and her friends from an attack inside the brothel only to be rescued by a Professor Snape bursting in, wand a-waving and curses flying, and sweeping the three of them away in a whirl of magic. Hermione almost snorted at the ridiculousness of the idea.

"Ginny," she said now, turning to look at the red-head, a look of disbelief on her face. "This is about as unromantic as you can get! It might be more romantic if he actually were attracted to me, but if he really does want me, all he wants me for is sex. He's still in love with Lily Potter and has no interest in me as a person. Besides, I was one of his greatest annoyances in school, remember? The insufferable know-it-all who couldn't resist a chance to show off her knowledge? And what have I got to attract him with anyway? My loads of thick, mad hair? My lack of height? Maybe the fact that I'm nineteen years younger than him, or that I was one of his students, and an annoying one at that? I honestly don't think he finds me attractive in the least."

The more she spoke, the more she seemed to convince herself. She certainly hadn't convinced Ginny and Luna. In fact, the more she spoke, the more she convinced them otherwise.

"Well, what about that kiss?" Luna asked reasonably.

Hermione sighed. "I admit, you could have knocked me over with a feather after that one, but he'd already said Voldemort would require a memory of a sexual encounter as proof that he'd purchased us for his own personal pleasure. And he said that fabricating a memory like that would be too difficult to do. Most likely he was just testing the waters, so to speak. Trying to see how difficult or easy it would be to…to be with me…_that_ way." By the time she finished speaking, it seemed to Ginny and Luna that she was struggling – and failing – to sound indifferent rather than hurt, as she most likely was.

For a while Ginny and Luna were perplexed, wondering where this low self-esteem of Hermione's was coming from. She couldn't have missed the intense, heated looks Snape had been giving her. How could she possibly think Snape had no interest in her other than as a means of ensuring his cover was maintained? But then, as their gazes met, they were both remembering Hermione's fifth year, when Hermione had begun to notice the boys in her year and the years above. She'd never really mentioned her own interest, but there had been several instances she'd casually mentioned to them where a boy had approached her to ask her whether a particular friend of hers had a boyfriend or might be interested in him, and only a close friend who knew her well, such as Ginny or Luna, would have seen the pain she masked so well. It was the pain that only ever comes of thinking a boy would only ever approach you to ask about his chances with one of your friends and never to express an interest in you.

Come sixth year, however, Hermione had started to blossom. Her hair was still bushy, but her body had suddenly decided to catch up to her age. She'd started to fill out quite nicely, though she hadn't grown any taller, and the boys began to notice. Ginny had once overheard a few of the Gryffindor boys in the year above Hermione comparing the physical attributes of some of the Gryffindor girls in the sixth and seventh years, and it seemed that despite her wild hair, her ass, thighs, hips, and breasts put her on par with Lavendar and Parvati, who everyone thought were two of the most attractive girls in either the sixth or seventh years in the entire school. Unfortunately, those boys had also made it clear that her brilliance was a turn-off, that she'd make even a Ravenclaw boy feel like an idiot.

And suddenly, Ginny and Luna realized how much damage had been done to their friend's self-esteem by the immaturity of Hogwarts boys. So perhaps, Luna mused, an older man might be the best thing for Hermione. Indeed, perhaps Professor Snape and Hermione were well-suited to each other after all. Professor Snape was mature enough not to approach her about a friend of hers, intellectual enough to keep her from growing bored, and experienced enough to teach her and soothe any concerns about her own inexperience. Hermione was stubborn enough to not allow him to fall into his self-deprecating tendencies, intelligent enough to not arouse his disdain, fiery enough to stand up to him and match his temper insult for insult, and loyal enough to love him no matter what if she decided he was worth loving.

"Listen, Hermione," Ginny said firmly. She touched Hermione's arm to make the older girl look at her. "I guess you didn't see it, or you thought it was something else, but when we were on the auction platform and he'd just announced his bid for us, he was looking right at you, and let me tell you, had those eyes been aimed at me, the heat would have killed me. And what's more, you said yourself that Mindy told you she's known him all her life, and knows when he's interested in a woman for more than sex, and thinks he's definitely interested in you for more than sex, even if he doesn't know it himself yet. Even if I weren't sure yet how far to trust Snape and his motives, I know we can trust her. There's just something about her that just radiates trustworthiness."

"I rather think," Luna started, and Hermione was surprised to see that she had regained her slightly dreamy expression, "that if Professor Snape really didn't want to be with you that way, he would throw himself into finding a way to replicate a memory of an encounter if a way didn't already exist. And he said it would be exceedingly difficult, but he didn't say it was impossible, did he?"

"Well, no, he didn't," Hermione answered slowly.

"I think the more important thing he said was that he had no _intention_ of fabricating a memory. I think he finds the idea of really being with you far too great to ignore," the blonde continued with a smile.

What none of the three girls realized was that Severus Snape stood in the darkest corner of the study, Disillusioned and listening intently. Once he'd finished eating, he'd summoned Mindy and asked her to take the dishes from his dinner and then escort the three girls to his study so he could speak to them. She'd taken his dinner tray and vanished, and when she'd gone, he'd cast the Disillusionment charm on himself and retreated to the darkest corner of his study to wait.

He had a feeling that Mindy had most likely interrupted a long conversation, and he wanted to know what they'd been discussing. The Slytherin in him knew that if he sat them down for a chat about their thoughts on everything that was happening, one of two things would occur.

Either they would close themselves off and remain tight-lipped and silent, refusing to capitulate, at which point he would use Legilimency on the Misses Lovegood and Weasley, or they would launch a verbal attack and begin a shouting match, at which point he would Silence them and use Legilimency on the Misses Lovegood and Weasley. He would prefer not to be shouted at, and Legilimency would not work on Miss Granger, who had somehow learned to Occlude her thoughts.

So really, eavesdropping on them was the only sensible thing to do if he wanted to learn how all three of them felt. And the plan had worked beautifully.

Given the looks Miss Weasley and Miss Lovegood had been exchanging, their thoughts were more or less on the same page. They both saw far more than Severus had intended to reveal this early in the game – apparently his desire was more obvious than he'd thought. They also saw far more than apparently Miss Granger could. It seemed that for once, Miss Granger's normally sound ability to understand a person had failed her.

What he'd heard from Miss Granger's own mouth had been a revelation as well.

So she didn't think she was attractive, did she? Apparently she'd spent her sixth year with her nose buried so far in her books that she'd completely missed the way the boys looked at her, noticing what Severus hadn't bothered to pay attention to until earlier tonight at the brothel where she was outside the school environment and dressed in clothes that teased and tantalized with hints of the treasures hidden beneath. Had those boys seen her on the auction platform, oh, how they would have salivated.

Severus hadn't realized, though, the extent of the foolishness of the male half of the Hogwarts student population. Apparently her brilliance made them all feel inadequate. Well, that was just fine with Severus. He knew how brilliant she was, and unlike those boys, he appreciated brilliance in a woman. Of course, in a casual relationship where sex was the only purpose, intellect wasn't necessary in his bedmate. Stupidity in a woman was a turn-off, however, so his one-night stands from Knockturn Alley were paid in part to keep their mouths from spouting off anything but moans of pleasure.

But he couldn't deny he'd always known if he were to be in a more serious relationship, it would be with a woman who could converse without sounding like an empty-headed ninny. The last relationship he'd been in, long ago, brief, and casual though it had been, had involved an American Muggle widow a few years older than him who had taught American Literature at a prestigious American University before taking the year-long sabbatical that had brought her to Britain in the first place.

How could Hermione possibly think she had nothing to attract him with? All the points she'd mentioned were ridiculous, with the possible exception of her age. Yes, she was young enough to be his daughter, but for one thing, he knew she was far more mature than even some adults his age (one Sirius Black came to mind), and for another, such age differences in the Wizarding World didn't matter nearly as much when witches and wizards often lived far longer – up to twice as long – than most muggles. Minerva McGonagall had been fifteen years younger than her husband, who'd died thirty years ago; she'd once said that the crippling loneliness she felt upon his death had been the final push she'd needed to decide to become a teacher at Hogwarts.

The other points Hermione had made were simply ridiculous. Her hair, though still wild, had redirected its bushiness into a mass of curls, so that her hair no longer appeared as if she'd been electrified. It captivated him, he realized; in an odd poetic turn, he rather thought that it alluded to the untamable wildness of her spirit, which she normally kept hidden and which mostly only emerged when her emotions got the best of her.

He usually preferred his women tall and elegant, but as his eyes studied her from across the room, he decided he loved her petite frame. It might sound egotistical of him to say, but her petite stature made him feel all the more masculine, as if she'd been made for him to protect. And then, of course, there was the fact that it seemed the saying "dynamite comes in small packages" seemed to have been coined with her in mind. She had a small body but a great mind, a heart of gold, and a will of steel.

As for her being his student, there actually weren't any rules against student-teacher relationships, with certain conditions. First, the student must be of legal age; in the Wizarding World, that meant seventeen years of age or older. Second, the relationship must be based on mutual consent, without coercion; should it be discovered that the student's grades were deliberately altered one way or another, either because the relationship existed or because the student had refused, then in the case of the former, the teacher's employment would be terminated and the student forced to complete his or her education by correspondence at home, and in the case of the latter, the teacher's employment would be terminated and the student's grades restored to what had been earned. And thirdly, the pair must be discrete enough to keep knowledge of the relationship from the majority of the student body.

Hermione being a student at Hogwarts might be a moot point anyway. He'd be obliged to keep her here at Prince Manor and away from Hogwarts for the foreseeable future for the sake of maintaining discretion and his cover as a spy. Things would go very badly if the Dark Lord thought he'd purchased the three witches and wasn't taking advantage of the fact that, for all intents and purposes, he owned them.

Which brought up another problem. What to do with Miss Weasley and Miss Lovegood? The Dark Lord would want to know that he was enjoying his purchase and would want to share his enjoyment. As he'd told Hermione, the Dark Lord favored him enough to not require him to share with anyone, including the Dark Lord himself, so Voldemort would be satisfied with seeing a memory of an encounter. He may have exaggerated when he'd told Hermione that such a memory would be extremely difficult to fabricate; yes, it was difficult, but he was actually fairly practiced at fabricating detailed memories. But Miss Lovegood had hit the nail on the head, so to speak, when she'd said that Severus likely found the idea of being with Hermione far too great to ignore. The truth was that the idea of seducing her into _wanting_ to come to his bed was too tempting for fabricating a memory of sex with her to be worth the effort. Thus, he'd not been lying when he'd told her that he had no intention of fabricating such a memory, and that he had absolutely no interest in either Miss Weasley or Miss Lovegood.

But perhaps…he did know two young wizards who did, in fact, have an interest in each of them, and they both happened to be Slytherins who pretended to be in support of the Dark Lord but secretly wanted nothing to do with him. Perhaps if he explained things to Miss Weasley and Miss Lovegood, he'd be able to send a "gift" to each of the young Slytherins, and then Miss Weasley and Miss Lovegood could work things out with Misters Zabini and Nott themselves. Better still, neither of the two boys was important enough to the Dark Lord that he would require a memory from them as he would from Severus, nor would he require them to share either of the girls with anyone else. Miss Weasley and Miss Lovegood would be safe with the two Slytherins; contrary to the belief of most of the rest of the school, not all Slytherins were as bad as the Death Eaters, and Zabini and Nott were among the most decent of the lot. The two boys would never dream of forcing relations with either of the girls – in fact, it was unlikely the boys would even try to coerce them as Severus was attempting with Hermione. If the two younger girls did end up giving themselves to the two Slytherins, it would be because they returned the boys' interest.

With a plan in mind, he felt that it was time to make his appearance. Silently, he made his way out the study door, and once he was outside the door and out of their line of vision, he cancelled the Disillusionment Charm and stepped into the doorway, clearing his throat to announce himself.

The three girls looked up, falling silent, and watched him enter the room. Miss Weasley's head was slightly tilted as she watched him, her appraisal frank; he could tell from her expression that she was highly curious as to what he would have to say, and from the brief glance she threw at Hermione, it was likely she also wanted to see for herself how he and her friend would interact. Miss Lovegood's face was serene and expectant, though harder to read simply because her mind was more difficult to understand. Hermione seemed to be struggling to keep her expression neutral, though she couldn't quite manage it. As she saw his eyes rest on her face, a blush stained her cheeks, and he couldn't help the feeling of triumph that came to him; already she couldn't help remembering the way he'd kissed her and the effect it had had on her.

But even as he approached, he saw her jaw set and a militant gleam enter her eyes; it appeared she had a few objections about something, and he had a feeling he knew what they were. It seemed she'd found out where she'd be sleeping. Good. That should be a clear sign of his intentions for her, if nothing else had been. He found himself looking forward to the inevitable verbal battle; maybe he'd be able to work in a few kisses at the very least, or perhaps even a chance to touch her. From the things she'd said to her two friends just now, he knew his best chance of making her want to come to him was to make her realize he truly did want her.

As he met her gaze, he allowed the faintest smirk to touch his lips, telling her silently that he knew what she was thinking of and silently promising that she wasn't going to get out of talking about it.

* * *

Wheesh, this chapter was an immense effort. My writer's block was more like the Great Wall of China, and I'm still not sure it's my best work - I have a feeling I got too wordy and went off on too many tangents, and I tried, I really tried to fix it, but I really wanted to update tonight. I hope you still like it and please give me your thoughts as to what I'm doing right and what I can fix and stuff. Love,

RP13


	7. Rules

Wheee, another update!

Disclaimer: See Prologue and Chapters 1-5. I don't know how many chapters I'll end up with, and I'm getting tired of repeating myself. I don't like imitating broken records.

* * *

_Chapter Six_

_~Rules~_

When he reached the three girls, Ginny glanced at Hermione before speaking up. Ginny could tell from that single glance that Hermione needed a chance to gather her wits and mentally prepare herself for the discussion with Snape.

"You wanted to speak with us, Professor?" Ginny asked calmly.

"Indeed," he replied, inclining his head briefly. "I wished to speak with the three of you together about what to expect of the coming days. It is vital that we are all on the same page, so to speak. There are a few rules that must be obeyed. First, none of you is to leave the house without informing myself or Mindy. Since the grounds are so well warded as to not allow _anyone_ in or out, not even the Dark Lord himself, you will be allowed onto the grounds, but you will be bound to them. Do not even attempt an escape. For one thing, you will be physically unable to leave the grounds, whether by magic or not. For another, I will instantly be alerted should you try. Subsequently, I will bind you solely to the house and you will no longer be allowed even into the garden.

"Second, you may come and go within the house as you please, though there will be certain rooms which will be off-limits, including my private Potions lab. Once again, they will be warded, so do not even attempt to enter them. Later I will take you on a tour of the Manor and will show you which rooms are off-limits and which ones you are free to enter.

"Thirdly, the library is one of the rooms which you are free to enter. However, there are certain books within the library which you will be forbidden to touch, as they are all on Dark Magic and most of them hold nasty consequences for anyone other than me, the owner, who attempts to read them. They are all on a separate shelf, and I will show you where they are so that you do not touch them. The rest of the books you may consider yours to peruse as you wish so long as you treat them carefully. You will also be free to study certain kinds of magic you will find within them, so long as you seek my approval before you begin studying something new. Though as you do not possess wands and most of the wandless magic to be studied in these books is likely too advanced for you to attempt, you may not find much you will be able to do."

Hermione kept her facial expression carefully controlled; all her studies of wandless magic during the last year had been completely extra-curricular, and some instinct she'd had as she'd pored over various library books had told her to keep her improving skills in wandless magic as secret as possible. It would be extremely difficult for an enemy to prepare for and counteract abilities he was unaware of. So Snape had absolutely no idea she'd even been studying wandless magic at all, never mind that her abilities were progressing nicely. She'd find _something_ useful to study in his books, wand or no wand, and she'd master whatever magic she tried to learn come hell or high water.

"Finally, you will join me for breakfast and dinner, though you will be free to take lunch as you please. When the new school term starts I will not be present for dinner as often, but I will continue to take breakfast here."

He paused to look at each one of them, his eyes lingering on Hermione's face the longest, before he continued. "Those are the only rules for now. Keep to them and they will be the only ones you will need to worry about. Break them and you will find yourselves with more restrictions. Are there any questions?"

Hermione and Luna shook their heads; Ginny, however, spoke. Where Hermione had learned when it was best to fall silent and observe quietly when seeking answers rather than always voicing her questions aloud and expecting answers to also be voiced aloud, Ginny had not quite reached that point. She still expected verbal answers to her questions, even if it meant browbeating them out of a person.

"What are your intentions for us, then? Clearly you're not going to just hand us back over to Professor Dumbledore and the Order, and you've made it pretty clear you're on the Order's side. So now that you've purchased us and for all intents and purposes, much as I hate to admit it, own us in the eyes of You-Know-Who and the Death Eaters, what are you going to do with us?" she asked bluntly, crossing her arms. She may have realized he was on their side, and may have acknowledged he wouldn't harm them, but she wanted him to say it. Plus, he seemed to have made his intentions for Hermione pretty clear, but hadn't said much as to what was going to happen to her and Luna.

He raised one eyebrow at her, drawing himself up to his full, considerable height. "Do you think me an idiot, Miss Weasley? Surely you don't expect me to believe that you and Miss Lovegood did not express your concern over what I wanted with Miss Granger after she returned to you. Or that she did not share anything of what transpired between us when I told her she could tell you what was going on. Doubtless she has told you everything, including the fact that the Dark Lord will require proof that I did not simply remove the three of you from the brothel only to hand you back over to the Order and that I have no intentions of fabricating a memory to satisfy him. I believe I have made abundantly clear to Miss Granger my intentions for her, as well as the fact that I do not have similar intentions for you and Miss Lovegood, and as I have been under the impression that she will have made you aware of what is going on, I see no need to repeat myself." He spoke with his best Professor Snape drawl, and though he addressed Ginny, when he spoke of his intentions for Hermione, his fathomless black gaze cut over to Hermione's face, snaring her eyes and daring her to challenge him before her friends.

Despite the verbal dressing-down she'd just been given, Ginny's determined quest for answers did not falter. "Fine, then. Just what is going to happen to myself and Luna? You've made it clear that you don't have the same interest in us that you have in Hermione, but will You-Know-Who be satisfied with a memory only with her? He won't need a memory with each of us?"

"I believe I may have another solution. I need to finish working out the details before I tell you anything more, however, so you will simply have to be satisfied for now that no harm will come to either of you, nor will either of you be forced to do anything against your wishes."

Ginny glanced at Luna and Hermione; she found no help from Hermione, who was watching Snape, her mouth in a thin line and her eyes hard, but Luna met her gaze and nodded almost imperceptibly. Ginny let the matter go.

Luna took her turn to speak up. "I expect you'll be required to show us off, Professor," she said candidly. Trust her to bring up something that hadn't occurred to the other two to ask about. "How will you do that?"

Severus blinked, momentarily surprised by the casual manner in which she asked the question, but he recovered quickly. "Undoubtedly, once the Dark Lord hears about the purchase, he will arrange a meeting with his Death Eaters, to which I will be summoned and where he will most likely ask me or Lucius Malfoy, the two of us being in possession of the largest and most suitable homes, to host a gala. I will be expected to bring the three of you, and all three of you will most likely be cross-examined thoroughly by the members of the inner circle." At the horrified looks of the three girls – well, of Hermione and Ginevra, at any rate; Luna's expression was serene as always – he hastened to add, "Not for information, but to see how well you hold up under pressure. Honestly, the members of the inner circle will most likely be envious when they learn I will not be required to share your…favors…with them, and will settle for making you as uncomfortable as they can and trying their hardest to provoke you into causing a scene, purely for the sake of entertainment. They will ask you as many personal and uncomfortable questions as they can think of, questions about how rough I am, how deviant my sexual preferences are, that sort of thing. Ignoring them completely would be unwise, so I leave it up to you to decide how best to answer them."

Hermione frowned, having thought of something. "What about here? Will there ever be other times when we will have to worry about the Death Eaters' company here?" she asked, her brows furrowed. The ruse would be much more difficult to maintain if they could not expect when other Death Eaters or, heaven forbid, Voldemort himself might show up.

To the girls' immense relief, he shook his head. "The Dark Lord has taken up residence at Malfoy Manor. All Death Eater meetings take place there. I am high enough in the Dark Lord's favor that if other Death Eaters wish to speak with me, they must either wait until the next meeting or send a letter by owl. For the other highest members of the inner circle, such as the Malfoys or the Lestranges, should they decide to drop in for a visit, my wards will notify me with enough time in advance to warn you and give you adequate time to prepare."

"What about visitors?" Ginny asked. "Will we be allowed to have any at all?"

Hermione wanted to shake her head. The fewer people who knew he wasn't using them as sex slaves as he was supposed to the better. How well would Harry and Ron or anyone else be able to keep it a secret if they knew the truth?

"No. The fewer people who know I am not using you for the purposes for which I purchased you, the better. The only people who will be allowed to see you are my own personal physician, the Headmaster, and Minerva McGonagall. The first will be in case of injury or illness that I do not have the skill to treat, the second because he is the one I truly work for, and the third because if she is not allowed to see you, she will most likely kick up a fuss and find a way to storm in anyway." His lips twitched almost unnoticeably, and Hermione found herself barely able to resist a smile of her own in response.

Ginny smirked. That was exactly what Minerva McGonagall would do should Snape attempt to keep her from her precious cubs. She almost wished he _would_ try; she'd pay money to see that duel. She allowed herself a brief moment of fantasy, but then banished it with a mental shake of her head. No, she told herself, Snape was on their side. He wouldn't harm them, so there would be no reason for him to duel McGonagall. She returned to the conversation.

"So if you're binding us to the grounds, I'm assuming then that there's no chance of us getting to go out, even if you take us," she stated.

He did not answer right away; instead, he was considering the merits of risking an outing against the potential disaster of holding hostage three teenage girls who would get bored even with access to his library and grounds. On the one hand, if they were recognized in public, problems would arise, either for them or for him, depending on who recognized them. On the other hand, while he knew Hermione would probably happily spend all day in the library if she could, he wasn't sure if the same could be said of the young Ravenclaw, who was certainly a bit of a free spirit, and he knew the same would definitely _not_ be said of the temperamental red-head.

In addition, these three girls had been three of the most prominent members of the one group that had given Dolores Umbridge more trouble than any others combined during her disastrous tenure at Hogwarts. Luna Lovegood was unpredictable. Ginny Weasley was temperamental with a tendency toward impatience. And brilliant Hermione Granger was devious enough to rival any Slytherin and had a potential for mischief to rival Fred and George Weasley or even the thrice-cursed Marauders. He shuddered to think of what trouble these three girls might create as a means of alleviating boredom, with or without wands.

He made his choice. "For now, no. But, if you show yourselves to be capable of behaving, following the other rules and _not_ creating mischief as I know members of the notorious Dumbledore's Army are wont to do, then _perhaps_ I will allow an outing, but only if you are disguised. No one must recognize you. In addition, I do not have the time to go gallivanting all about Diagon Alley. Therefore, should these outings occur, it will be Mindy who accompanies you, and she will be able to bind herself to all three of you, so again, do not consider that you may be able to attempt an escape." As he spoke, he drew himself up to his full, imposing height and glowered down his nose at them.

The three girls nodded their agreement. The prospect of possibly getting out of the Manor every once in a while was too great a temptation to risk it by making trouble. They'd be good.

When no other questions were forthcoming, he spoke again. "Then, if that is everything, I will bid you good night. Mindy will accompany you to your rooms. In the morning she will escort you to breakfast, after which I will show you around the Manor that you may learn your way around, as well as where you may or may not go."

He called for Mindy, who appeared with a pop, and bade her take the girls back to their rooms. As the three of them turned to go, however, he smirked to himself. Surely Hermione hadn't thought it'd be that easy.

"A moment, Miss Granger. I'd like a word with you. I will accompany you back upstairs myself after I finish speaking with you."

Hermione stopped, her back to the Professor, and closed her eyes in resignation. She opened them to find Ginny and Luna looking back at her, as if to ask if they should wait for her. She shook her head at them, knowing Snape would just send them away anyway.

With reassuring looks back at her, they followed Mindy from the room without a word.

Hermione took another moment to steel herself, taking a deep breath. Then she schooled her expression so that it was unreadable.

"What is it, sir?" she asked, fighting to keep her pounding heart from showing on her face.

One side of his mouth tilted up in almost a half-smile. The look was one of part amusement, part smugness, and all arrogance. "Come now, Hermione," he said, drawing her name out in a purr. Oh, now that went straight to her knickers, and he knew it, damn him. "Is it not typical of Gryffindors to want to cut straight to the chase? Don't pretend you have no idea why I have sent your two friends away while holding you back."

Her nose flared and her lips tightened. Oh, yes, she knew very well why he'd done that. And clearly he wasn't going to let her spend the first night or two with her friends. Clearly he expected her to strip, jump straight into his bed, and lie on her back with her legs open for him right from the off. Well, if he thought she was just going to submit to him without a fuss and let him take her whenever he wanted, then he had better think again.

If he wanted a memory of an encounter with her to prove himself and satisfy some twisted voyeuristic fetish Voldemort had, fine. But she'd see him in hell before she allowed it to be a memory of him forcing her or just taking her as he pleased. Far better anyway for it to seem like she'd consented because she trusted him.

But the real issue right now was the fact that apparently he expected to keep her in his bed even after the one memory had been produced. As far as she was concerned, once would be enough, and after that there would be no further need to keep her in his bed.

So, with those thoughts worked out, she straightened her spine and shifted until her stance was the same challenging one she'd taken on the auction platform in the brothel.

Severus watched with satisfaction as the militant gleam entered her eyes, her spine stiffened, and she took on an aggressive pose similar to the one on the auction platform in the brothel. Oh, yes, she was beautiful when she was angry.

"Fine then," she said, her eyes blazing. "Mindy told me just where you plan to have me sleep, and I won't have it. You want a real memory? Fine. I'll do it once so you can have your fucking proof, but that's it. I'm not staying in your bed. If you think I'm going to become your personal whore just because I'm more convenient or cleaner than whatever you might find in Knockturn Alley or because you think I should be grateful, you've got the wrong Hermione Granger." She crossed her arms, the gesture intended to be defiant but only coming across as protective, and her mouth and jaw took on a stubborn set. "You don't really even want me anyway, I'm not sure why you're going to so much trouble when I'm sure you really could fabricate a memory if you wanted to."

As he met her gaze, he saw that she truly believed what she was saying, and he wondered what she'd heard during her days at school to become so convinced that no one could possibly be attracted to her. And as he'd already figured, he realized that the surest way of getting her into his bed and keeping her there was to not only make her want to be there but to make her realize that _he_ wanted her there.

He didn't answer her immediately. He simply began to approach her, determined, and as she moved back, he drove her toward his desk once more.

When she'd backed up as far as she could get, he trapped her between the desk and his body, and brought his arms up to cage her in, bracing his hands on the edge of the desk on either side of her body. He lowered his head, putting his lips close to her ear, and said, "You truly think I don't really want you? Why don't you tell me again?"

With that he kissed her for the second time that evening. This kiss was very similar to the first; long and hard, taking her senses and any resistance she had by storm. Just like before, his tongue forced its way into her mouth and began to duel with hers.

One of his arms was wrapped around her waist like a vise; his other hand captured one of hers, and before she could even wonder what he was doing, he pulled her hand down and pressed the palm of it to the hard bulge in his trousers. She gasped and shuddered as he moved her hand, trapped in his much larger one, up and down along the bulge.

"That's going to be inside you one way or another," he said against her lips. His rough, dark voice was seductive, and she felt herself being drawn in without thought of a struggle. "And it won't be rape. In fact, if I have my way, and I will, you'll be begging for it." Those last five words came out in a ragged half-whisper that went straight between her legs and she had to suppress a shudder.

Dimly she realized that if her present state was any indication, he was probably right. She'd be able to resist him about as well as a piece of cooked spaghetti.

Just as she had thought that out, he removed his other arm from around her and brought his hand back around between them. Almost before she realized what he was doing, his hand stole under her sweater and tank top and under her lace bra, covering one of her breasts. Her nipple puckered instantly; his hand felt like a brand on her skin.

Her head spun even more wildly, and her knees buckled. He dropped her hand and removed his other hand from her breast in time to catch her. He grasped her waist and lifted her up until she perched on the edge of his desk, and then he let go of her waist in favor of grasping the undersides of her thighs with his hands so he could spread her legs and step between them. Then his large hands stole around her and he cupped the fleshy globes of her arse, bringing her forward a little so he could grind his hard cock into her core. He could feel her heat even through the layers of their clothes, and reveled in the moan she couldn't hold back as he rhythmically ground himself against her.

Finally, he broke the kiss, though he kept his forehead pressed to hers. She regained her senses, and straightened where she sat on the desk, though she was still a little dizzy. Clearly he realized this, for he gave her a vastly amused and immensely smug smirk, and said, "See? Now tell me I don't want you."

* * *

This chapter was also an effort. Turns out it's a helluva lot harder to write the stuff that builds up to the real drama. Either that or I'm just not interested in hearing the rules Snape is laying out for the girls. I'm much more interested in finding out what kind of magic those girls are gonna find in his books. Yeah, Hermione's bookwormyness always did remind me of my own. She's not the only one who could spend all day in a library.

So. Now can I have a peanut - er, review - for my efforts?


	8. Note to the Reader

Note: Not a Chapter Update

Sorry, this isn't a chapter update. But today I did in fact update Chapters 2, 5, and 6 (Bought, Conversations, and Rules). It has been brought to my attention that I have been repeating myself a few times with certain ideas and concepts, so hopefully they have been adequately fixed. Also, I found one or two contradictions of my own that no one else spotted, and I'm just glad I got them and fixed them before anyone else noticed. If you notice the differences, I offer you peanuts of your own in congratulations for having paid close attention. If you don't notice the difference, then I still write well even when I'm not paying such close attention to my _own_ work. Not to toot my own horn, of course.

In addition, I want to take a moment to really thank those of you who have reviewed for multiple chapters. Thanks for stickin' it out. Also, an even bigger thanks to those who've actually offered constructive criticism and telling me what I can fix instead of just telling me what I'm doing right. Hot diggity, y'all are the kind of reviewers who really help writers grow.

Love,

RP13


	9. Attraction

__Okay, _now_ I have a new chapter update. It's shorter and I'm sorry about that, but I think after this chapter is where things are going to start happening.

Also, I want to take a second to thank all my reviewers, especially those who have reviewed multiple chapters. You're the ones who bring the goofy smiles to my face as I read my reviews.

Okay, now that that moment of sappiness is over, back to my more pragmatic self. My initials are RP13, not JKR. Mindy, Elapida Serpens, the auctioneer, and the Silver Serpent are all that are mine.

Also, I don't know if I've made this clear, but I thought I should point it out anyway: this story is rated M. The last chapter, Rules, should have made that clear. All the characters engaging in adult activities in this story are 18 or older; therefore, the people reading about it should be, too.

* * *

_Chapter Seven_

_~Attraction~_

"You're wrong, Hermione," Severus told her softly.

Groggily, she lifted her head to look at him and said, "Pardon?"

His hands shifted from possessively clasping her arse to resting on her hips, and his thumbs had somehow worked their way under the hems of her sweater and tank top and were massaging the skin just above the waistband of her jeans. It was incredibly distracting.

"You seem to be under the impression that I'm not truly attracted to you. The truth is, yes, it is important to keep my cover, but the idea of making a purchase from Elapida Serpens had not even entered my mind until I saw you standing on the auction platform, absolutely fucking gorgeous in that damned dress. I realized you'd grown up while I wasn't paying attention, and I was determined to have you if I could." His hands pulled her closer, but only that he might hold her more tightly to him.

Hermione was confused. "But, I don't understand. Your purchase was what, a whim? Based on what you saw?"

He shook his head. "No. I entered the brothel on a lead, having heard word of a raid and that the captives were taken there. I honestly hoped I wouldn't find the three of you there, and when I did, it was one of the worst things I could have imagined happening to you. But when I saw the three of you there, before it even registered in my mind how _you_ had changed and how beautiful _you_ had become, I knew I had to get all of you out. So I began to think of how I might get you out without compromising my role as a spy. As I thought about that, I looked at you again and it was then that the idea came to me to purchase all three of you, making it look as if I simply wanted The Elements for my own personal pleasure."

She tensed at his words. "Please don't call us that," she said unhappily, turning her head away. "There's nothing elemental about us, and the nickname was just another one of their ploys to make us realize how completely we were under their control."

He inclined his head, conceding the point. "Very well. But the fact remains, making the purchase was the easiest, fastest, and safest way to get you out. We can work out any other problems that arise as a result of such a purchase being binding in the magical world as we encounter them, and at our own leisure."

She looked up at that, the expression on her face telling him she'd very much like to ask what problems he was referring to, but she let it go, simply nodding her head. But then she frowned again. "So I still don't understand, then. If the purchase was just to facilitate the rescue, why the insistence on a memory of an encounter, or on me staying in your bed? You've implied that creating a fake memory isn't as impossible or as hard as you've made it out to be, so why are you bothering with creating a real memory? And with me, of all people? You haven't made a secret of your dislike of me the past six years."

He gave her another amused half-smile. "To put it simply, my dear, I'm selfish and those are just excuses to hide my own agenda," he said, unconsciously echoing her thoughts earlier as Mindy had escorted her back to her friends after that first spectacular kiss. "I find it difficult to believe you don't seem to realize it yet, but I truly want you in my bed, and your purchase from the brothel and my insistence that a fabricated memory wouldn't suffice are excuses to make it easier to get you there." He lowered his head once more, this time to the pulse point on her neck just beside the corner of her jaw and below her right ear, and his lips settled there with intent to consume.

Her eyes rolled back and her hands – when had they moved? she wondered dimly – clenched on his shoulders as she struggled to control her breathing. She wasn't sure how successful she was, however. Her breathing seemed to her to be embarrassingly loud, her pounding heart felt like a battering ram trying to break out of her ribcage, and her blood was singing. If he noticed any of these things, he gave no indication.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Hermione marveled that she was even in this position at all; perched on a desk with Severus Snape standing between her legs, kissing her neck. No one but herself knew of the small crush she'd harbored on her Professor throughout her years at Hogwarts – with the notable and embarrassing exception of her second year, what with Gilderoy Lockhart's occupancy of the DADA position – but somewhere in her mind there was a mental version of herself doing a giddy dance at the thought that he really did want her.

He wanted her, she thought giddily. Wanted her in his bed. Wanted her enough to make up excuses to get her there. Excuses…his insistence on a real memory to keep up his cover…that was an excuse…buying her from the brothel…that was an excuse, too…he didn't need the memory or the purchase to keep his cover…so the only reason for her to be in his bed was because…he…wanted her…her eyes snapped open.

Severus Snape had just made a very bad mistake. He had played all his cards at once.

"So let me get this straight," she breathed. Though there was nothing in her tone to warn him, the sudden way her body had tensed did. He stilled, but did not remove his lips from her neck. "You mean to tell me that the only reason for me to be in your bed is because you desire my body. Not because it will protect Ginny and Luna, or help you keep your cover, or basically do anything to help end the war. It's purely for your own physical gratification."

Finally he lifted his head. Internally, he was cursing himself for his mistake. But his expression remained controlled. He raised an eyebrow at her. "It would be for yours, as well. Your body betrays you, Hermione," he drawled with a smirk of supreme arrogance. "I can practically hear how your heart rate spikes when I touch you." He lowered his head and skimmed his nose along the edge of her jaw, raising goose bumps in its wake. "I can feel the heat radiating from your body as it flushes from my attention." One hand stole higher under her clothes and splayed across the heated flesh of her stomach. "And I can _smell_ your arousal _here._" His other hand found its way between them and boldly cupped her between her thighs. "You cannot lie to me and say you don't want me as well."

She fought to even out her breaths and to keep from capitulating to his persuasion. "The fact remains…you only want me for sex," she said shakily. "So…" Summoning all her strength and ignoring her body's protests, she planted her hands on his solid chest and shoved him away from her. He caught himself, saving himself from a rather undignified meeting with his study floor, but she had already hopped down from the desk and was halfway to the door.

He didn't stop her. Oh, it had been his first instinct, to wandlessly shut the door and raise the wards to the study, trapping her within. But he wanted her to come to him, and he knew that her insatiable curiosity – and her passion – would make her unable to resist in the end. There would be no need for such tactics as holding her hostage.

When she did reach the door, she paused and turned to look back at him. "Maybe you're right and I do want you. But my virginity is something I can only give away once, so why on earth would I give it to a man to whom it would mean nothing more than a good fuck whenever he wants it for as long as he wants it? Maybe I'm being sentimental, but I'd prefer a little more emotional or at least intellectual involvement from whatever man I give myself to. He doesn't have to be the man I intend to spend the rest of my life with, and I'm certainly not expecting the kind of deep and abiding love one finds in stories, but you've known me long enough by this point that you should know I never do anything casually. Even if it's not a long-term commitment, it should at least mean something. And you've made it abundantly clear I wouldn't be anything more than a notch on your bed-post, no matter how long I occupy that bed." She drew herself up, straightening her spine and meeting his gaze squarely. "If you're not going to give me a room of my own, then I'll stay with Ginny or Luna until they see fit to kick me out. And I know they won't." With that she whirled out the door.

She left behind a Potions Master who was highly aroused and now sexually frustrated, who couldn't help but admire her spirit and firm resolve regarding what she wanted and didn't want, and who most reluctantly had to admit that his estimation of and respect for had just jumped up a few notches. Oh, he wanted her more than ever now and he still intended to have her; her unwillingness to submit had just made her a challenge in his eyes, and heaven knew he could never resist a challenge. But at the same time her words had forced him to recognize that if he really wanted her, he'd have to foster a relationship with more than just her body.

And why not, after all? She'd said herself, she didn't necessarily intend to save her virginity for the man she'd spend the rest of her life with. She'd even said she'd prefer at least some intellectual involvement, if not emotional, and he knew they both had intellect in spades. He himself preferred the women he saw with any regularity to be able to hold his interest mentally as well as physically, even if the relationship was no more than a friendship with benefits.

So he decided that if he wanted her in his bed – and he really, _really_ did – then he'd have to pursue her honestly, or at least as honestly as the consummate Slytherin could. He'd seduce her with intelligent conversations, offers to help her – and her friends – with their studies of wandless magic in his books, perhaps even a request for her help on one or two potions projects he was working on. And of course, he'd tempt her with stolen kisses and touches designed to leave her wanting more.

So he'd let her stay with her two friends for now. Eventually, either she'd come to him on her own, or he'd bring her to his bed himself with nothing from her but willing compliance. And to his own surprise, he found himself looking forward to his first courtship of a woman in, oh, who knew how long.

* * *

How was that? Hopefully no repetitiveness this time around? What do we think of Severus deciding to pursue more of a relationship with Hermione? Understand at this point it's still for the purpose of getting her into his bed, but obviously he realizes he has to be subtle about it. Are we feeling the subtlety?

Don't worry, I think the next chapter is where things are going to start picking up around Prince Manor. _Maybe_ we'll get an impromptu meeting with one of Voldemort's inner circle, or maybe a visit from one of the Order. Also, we may or may not be bringing the Messrs Zabini and Nott into play. And we may or may not have The Elements find interesting things to study in Snape's books. Hmmm. I think I sense certain..._changes..._on the horizon.

And on that note, I leave you to ponder the myriad directions in which this story could go...or the meaning of life...or the interesting patterns to be found in the little bumps in the plaster on your wall...or whatever it is in you to ponder.

RP13


	10. Visit

__Fina-frickin'-lee. I really had to wrestle with my brain to wring ideas from it. I did the best that I could to fulfill my own predictions in the note at the end of the last chapter, but it didn't completely work, so I don't think I'll be giving any more hints at the end of a chapter as to what will happen in the next one unless I already have the next chapter written. At any rate I hope this is satisfactory and that my protracted absence has not lost me any of my readers or regular reviewers.

Disclaimer: Only Mindy is mine, nothing else in this chapter. Because I'm just a kennel technician who plays at writing and tells everyone who'll listen that she has a degree in biology, not the woman who came up with Harry Potter on a napkin (I got that one right, didn't I? She started on the back of a napkin?).

* * *

_Chapter Eight_

_~Visit~_

Early the next morning, Mindy entered the silent kitchen to begin preparing for the day, starting with breakfast for her Master and the three Missies who were his guests. When it was ready she would put it under stasis and would then report upstairs to awaken the three Missies, help them dress, and escort them to breakfast.

Mindy began to hum quietly to herself as she worked, her subconscious on the tasks she was carrying out while the rest of her mind was filled with happy visions of Prince Manor filled once more with life and love. She could see Master Severus smiling genuinely for the first time in so long, or finally looking at someone with a love that was returned in equal measure. She could see herself serving breakfast to the first Lady of the Manor she'd seen in over twenty years. She could see flashes of short, wild brown hair or long black curls, mischievous black or agate-colored eyes, and small bare feet disappearing around corners as the echoes of young voices shrieking with laughter resounded in the corridors.

She allowed herself a moment to savor these fantasies, and then banished them to the back of her mind with a brisk shake of her head. "You is getting ahead of yourself, Mindy," she said aloud. Sometimes it helped with the loneliness to hear her own voice. "Master Severus is not even having the in-outie with Missy Hermione yet. Never mind telling her he loves her and wants to marry her and have lots of babies with her. You must take things one step at a time. Make sure Master Severus is not choking on his foot with Missy Hermione like he is with the red-haired Missy when he is a boy. Though if he is choking on his foot, Missy Hermione is probably forgiving him more quickly than the red-haired Missy did."

She knew Missy Hermione had seen Master Severus's memories in the Pensieve, and also knew what they contained, even if she'd never seen them herself. But she'd also watched from the shadows, helpless, while her poor Master Severus's heart was broken by his red-haired friend when she wouldn't forgive him for the name he'd called her in a fit of anger. Mindy had never quite forgiven the Missy Lily for that, though she understood why the red-head had been so angry.

Though Mindy had not known Missy Hermione for even a day, house elves had powerful intuition, and Mindy's was telling her that should Master Severus insult Missy Hermione without meaning to as he had Missy Lily, Missy Hermione would still forgive Master Severus.

Smiling and still humming to herself, Mindy finished preparing breakfast and then, when it was ready, she put the meal under stasis and went to set the dining room table, setting the dishes and silverware in four places clustered at one end of the table along with flagons of orange juice and pumpkin juice and pots of coffee and tea. Once the table was set, she popped upstairs.

She knew Master Severus was awake already, as he always rose and came to breakfast at the same time every day, so there was no need for her to inform him that breakfast was ready. She paused, however, remembering that Missy Hermione would be in his rooms. Likely Master Severus would awaken her and inform her of breakfast being ready himself, but would he also help her dress? Perhaps she ought to wake the other two Missies first and then go to Master Severus's chambers and inquire if he would like her to help Missy Hermione.

That decided, she turned left at the top of the grand staircase instead of right, and knocked on Missy Ginny's door to announce herself before opening the door and entering. She stopped short at the sight that met her eyes, however.

She had been instructed to give the girls their own rooms, so why was Missy Luna sleeping in Missy Ginny's room with her? And more than that, she realized, it was quite clear that Missy Hermione was _not_ in Master Severus's bed, for here she was, currently sleeping between Missy Luna and Missy Ginny.

Oh, dear. Mindy wondered what had happened. Had Missy Hermione gotten upset with Master Severus again and decided to defy him by sleeping somewhere other than where he'd instructed? Or had Master Severus had a change of heart and allowed her to sleep with her friends instead of forcing her into his bed? Somehow she had a feeling it was the latter, for he would not allow such open defiance of his instructions. Had Missy Hermione gone against Master Severus's wishes, he would have thundered into the room and carried her away, taking her into his chambers and casting wards to prevent her from leaving them.

She wondered if Master Severus had begun to realize yet Missy Hermione's worth as more than just a bedmate. If he hadn't yet, it was only a matter of time. But given the fact that he hadn't made her sleep with him last night, it seemed that perhaps he was on the right path.

She cleared her throat and crossed the room to open the drapes at the window, allowing the rising sun to color the room in pink and gold. "Missies, it is time to wake up. Breakfast is ready and Master Severus is wanting you to eat with him."

Hermione was the first to wake, sitting up immediately. She'd always been a light sleeper; at home all it had taken was a light knock and her mother's voice spoken in a normal volume to wake her, even through her closed door. In fact, she now mused vaguely, it was quite a miracle she'd slept as well as she did, given that she'd slept in a bed with two other girls who, though they didn't snore, still made noise as they breathed. She thanked the gods neither of them talked in their sleep.

"Is the Missies needing help getting dressed?" Mindy asked her, showing no signs of surprise that she was here rather than in Snape's bed.

"I don't know about Ginny or Luna, but I prefer dressing myself, thank you. At the very least it will help me wake up fully," she replied as she carefully climbed over Ginny to get out of the bed on the side closest to the bathroom.

It was as Hermione disappeared into the bathroom that Luna started to rouse herself from her slumber. Seeing that Ginny's bathroom was occupied, she went over to the room she'd been assigned, as of yet untouched, to use the bathroom and shower there.

By the time Ginny, a much heavier sleeper than either of her two friends, had managed to awaken and pull herself from the bed, Hermione had finished with her shower and was walking out of the bathroom, wrapped in a towel. Ginny took her turn in the bathroom while Hermione went to the wardrobe to find some clothing.

She found a light, floaty cotton skirt the color of milk chocolate and paired it with a simple beige cotton top with cap sleeves and a sweetheart neckline. At first the skirt was too long on her, falling nearly to her ankles, and was rather too tight over her hips and rear – it seemed it had originally been designed with a nearly-six-foot-tall stick in mind – while the top was far too loose and draped over her torso in a rather unflattering way. But the clothing shifted until the top loosely hugged her breasts and clung to the curve of her waist, while the skirt eased its restrictive squeezing of her rear, the fabric bunched about her hips smoothing out, and shortened until the hem of the skirt fell just below her knees. The entire outfit was completed by a simple pair of beige canvas slip-on flats.

She picked up the towel she'd hung on one post of the bed and began to more thoroughly dry her hair, wishing she had her wand to dry it magically.

As she was drying her hair, Luna returned to the room, now fully dressed herself. She wore a pair of dark gray leggings under a short baby doll dress made of a sunny yellow eyelet lace and a pair of light gray canvas flats similar in style to Hermione's beige ones. The top portion of her blonde hair was pulled back into a pony tail at the back of her head while the rest fell to her hips.

The two girls waited in silence for Ginny to finish her shower, and when she did, she went over to the wardrobe where she put on a pair of dark-wash skinny jeans, a white scoop-necked tank top, and a thin, dark blue cardigan. On her feet went a pair of black ballet flats, and her hair was pulled into a pony tail at the base of her neck.

Now that all three girls were ready, Mindy escorted them downstairs to the dining room, where Professor Snape already sat at the head of the table. He must have been waiting for them, because his plate was empty and clean, and he was reading the Daily Prophet. He looked up as they entered, and put the newspaper down.

"I trust you all had an adequate night's sleep?" he asked by way of greeting.

"We did, thank you, sir," Luna answered candidly while the other two nodded their agreement.

"Come. Sit so we may eat. When we finish, I shall walk you about the Manor and the grounds." He paused, and then said, "In addition, late last night after the three of you went to sleep, I contacted the Headmaster to let him know that I had found you. He will be calling on us later this morning."

They blinked in surprise, but nodded or murmured their agreement, and all four of them made short work of their breakfast in a silence that was broken only by the clinking of silverware and the sloshing of juice, coffee, or tea being poured into cups or mugs.

When they were finished eating, true to his word the Professor showed them around, starting with the Manor. As he did so, he was careful to watch their expressions that he might know which areas to forbid access to should they cause trouble. Miss Weasley, though somewhat awed by the grandeur of the rooms, seemed in general to be indifferent to the Manor as a whole. Miss Lovegood took everything in with a mildly interested expression that told him that as long as she was with her friends she didn't care where they were. But he smirked, suppressing a chuckle, when Miss Granger's countenance lit up as they entered the library. Well, it seemed he knew what to hold over her head.

He was surprised, however, when, as he showed them about the grounds, all three noticed the stables at the same time. In fact, he watched with raised eyebrows as Hermione's body seemed to turn and take a half-step in that direction without her even realizing what she was doing.

"I suppose you may include the stables in the list of places you are allowed to go," he said after a moment. The sound of his voice appeared to bring Hermione out of her trance; poised to take another step toward the stables, she stopped and turned back to face him with a somewhat guilty expression. "And you may include horseback-riding on the list of things you are allowed to do. I shall instruct the hostlers to show you which horses you may ride as well as where the tack and equipment are."

"Thank you, sir," Hermione told him sincerely, her eyes shining a bit.

Uncomfortable with the clear expression of emotion on her face and desiring to turn things back to his control, he nodded curtly and opened his mouth to speak as he made to continue moving. But before he could get anything out or take a step, Mindy appeared before them. "Master Severus," she said. "You has guests. They is waiting in the sitting room. It is the Heads Master Dumbledore, the Deputy Heads Mistress M'Gongal and a Master Seriously Black. They is wanting to speak with you and the three Missies."

An odd choking noise sounded, but when Severus looked toward the three girls, he saw nothing untoward. But he noticed that Miss Weasley was bright pink and appeared to be mashing her lips together in a flat line, while Miss Granger looked to be chewing on a thumbnail, with her lips also pressed together. Her eyes gave her away, however, as they were alight with genuine amusement.

He raised an eyebrow at them but said nothing to them. Instead, he turned back to Mindy and said, "Please inform Headmaster Dumbledore and…Mister Black…that we will be with them shortly."

Mindy bowed briefly and vanished with a pop as Severus turned his attention back to the three girls. "We will have to cut the tour short. You have seen just about everything anyway. If there is anything else you wish to be shown, you may ask Mindy. For now, we must see the Headmaster." With that, he turned in a billow of robes and began to head back to the Manor.

The three girls glanced at each other before following. Hermione found herself wondering why Sirius had accompanied Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall but then she figured he must have insisted on checking on the three girls at least on Harry's behalf.

The four of them met Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall, and Sirius in the sitting room, where the three waited for them. Professor Dumbledore sat in an armchair while Professor McGonagall stood next to him and Sirius stood by the fireplace, staring into the flames, his expression preoccupied. But when Professor Snape entered with the three girls in tow, his head snapped up.

He immediately strode over and swept Hermione into his arms for a fierce hug that caught the young woman by surprise. Blinking, she had just put her arms around his shoulders to hug him back when he put her down and wrapped his arms around both Ginny and Luna's shoulders to pull them to his sides for hugs that were more controlled. Once he'd put her down, Professor McGonagall came and pulled Hermione into her arms, surprising her even more than Sirius had – the Transfiguration Professor and Deputy Headmistress was only slightly more likely to give hugs than Professor Snape.

Severus tried to quell the intense feeling of possessive rage that had filled him when Black hauled Hermione into his arms, but as he glanced at Dumbledore to see his reaction to the proceedings, he found the old man's gaze on him instead.

Dumbledore's expression was neutral, but in the depths of his eyes was a particular gleam that told Severus that the shrewd old man was making guesses, and most likely accurate ones at that, about what was going on in Severus's head. The look the Headmaster was giving Severus was considering, akin to the look a cat who is neither particularly hungry nor inclined to play gives a mouse moving carelessly about.

Severus averted his gaze, knowing the Headmaster saw much and wanting to keep him from seeing more if possible.

He was drawn from his contemplation with a somewhat unpleasant jolt, however, when Black spoke.

"Now just what is going on here?" he demanded. "Why are Hermione, Ginny, and Luna still being held here now that they're safe?"

"Because, Black, when I took them from the brothel, I could not just storm in and take them away in a blaze of magic. Unlike you, I am doing something useful for the Order. I have a cover I need to maintain, and purchasing them from the brothel rather than thundering about in an obvious rescue mission was the best way to maintain my cover. After all, what would you expect of a Death Eater but for him to purchase the three witches closest to the enemy of his so-called Master for his own pleasure? And once the purchase was made I could not very well hand them back to the Order. As much as the Dark Lord values my service, even I am watched. No, the most sensible thing is to appear as if I am enjoying the results of money well-spent."

Black's face darkened with rage as he listened to the Potion's Master's superior tone. His hand plunged into the pocket of his robes for his wand; Severus reacted swiftly and had his own wand in hand at nearly the same time. However, both men found their wands flying out of their grips not half a second later.

They looked up in order to see where their wands had flown off to just in time to see Hermione Granger reaching her empty hands out to catch the two wands. Their rage temporarily forgotten, both wizards stared at her, gobsmacked.

"What?" she asked defensively. "I only disarmed you."

"Without either your wand or a verbal incantation," Sirius clarified, eyes wide.

She shrugged. "Well, you know we started learning non-verbal magic in sixth year. I've done a bit of reading here and there about wandless magic, but I haven't really started to make a very good study of it. A disarming spell is about the only thing I can do that's useful," she lied. No way was she jeopardizing her chance to expand her power in wandless magic by giving Snape the opportunity to remove her access to any books that would be helpful.

Ginny and Luna, who stood near the Headmaster, kept their emotions from their faces. Unlike the two black-haired men, they were well aware of just how much Hermione could do without a wand, and they wondered why she was hiding the true extent of her abilities. Surely if Professor Snape knew how much progress she'd made since she'd begun her studies in wandless magic, he'd provide her with the reading material necessary to further her studies?

But as Luna glanced from Hermione to Professor Snape, she wondered if perhaps Hermione feared the opposite. Luna knew how important it was to Hermione to learn as much as she could about her magic; therefore, if Hermione felt Professor Snape would try to keep her from studying wandless magic if he knew about it, perhaps in fear of her learning how to escape, then she would feel that the best solution was to make sure he never knew, and study in secret. It was by that reasoning that she'd introduced the idea for Dumbledore's Army back in her fifth year.

Minerva McGonagall fought to keep the smugness from her face as she took in the shocked expression on her rival's face. What she wouldn't give to be a fly on the wall during a confrontation between her rival and her protégé! At the very least she knew that if Severus was going to keep Hermione and her two friends captive, whatever the reason, and tried to make things difficult for them, then the young Gryffindor lioness wasn't going to make it any easier for him.

"Be that as it may," Professor Dumbledore said, his twinkling eyes now on Hermione rather than Professor Snape, "the ability to disarm without a wand is nothing to sneeze at either, my dear." Here his eyes turned to Professor Snape, though he continued to speak to Hermione. "The ability to use magic without a wand is one I have always felt witches and wizards should strive for. If you have access to the resources necessary to further your learning in wandless magic, it would be a _grave mistake_ to keep you from using them."

Severus blinked at the Headmaster's choice of words, until he realized that last sentence had been directed at _him_. Dumbledore had essentially just forbidden him from keeping Hermione from studying wandless magic if she so desired.

In all honesty, he'd had no idea she'd even begun studying wandless magic at all. At best, he would have thought she'd still be trying to perfect her nonverbal spells, furthering the studies all sixth years had begun. Though he supposed he shouldn't be surprised she was already jumping ahead to studying wandless magic.

Very well, if she expressed a desire to study wandless magic using the books in his library, then he would allow it. Just then, however, another thought occurred to him. She'd said that a disarming spell was all she could really do that was useful, but was that actually true? What if she'd only said that so he wouldn't think she'd been making a serious effort to learn wandless magic and thus try to prevent her from continuing? If she thought he would, then she would try to do it anyway, in secret. He sighed as he realized he'd have to bring the topic up with her and let her know there'd be no need to sneak about.

"If you would be so gracious, Miss Granger?" he asked then, holding out his hand for his wand.

She eyed his hand for a moment before raising her head to look from him to Black, suspicious. She must have decided they weren't to be trusted, for she only tightened her hold on the wands rather than giving them back.

He rolled his eyes with an irritated sigh. "I will not be hexing anyone, Miss Granger, though at the moment the prospect of hexing _you_ is tempting. My wand, if you please," he snapped, scowling.

She huffed in annoyance. "Fine, here," she said shortly, holding his wand out to him. But she made no move to approach him, letting him know in no uncertain terms that he'd have to come get it himself.

He suppressed a growl at her impudence and stalked forward, snatching it from her hand with a glare. His annoyance only heightened when she did approach Sirius to hand him his wand. He heard a snort and glared at Minerva, whose lips had been mashed into a flat line to prevent them from breaking into a smile.

So the little witch thought she'd challenge his authority, did she? Well, he'd teach her. Of course, he'd have to wait until Black and the Headmaster were gone and he could get her by herself. But he'd show her that no witch bested him in a challenge for dominance and that she'd better not forget it.

"If we may return to the matter at hand," the Headmaster said, drawing Severus from his thoughts. "Sirius and I are here to check on Miss Weasley, Miss Lovegood, and Miss Granger and ensure that they are all right after their week of captivity within the brothel. The first question I must ask is whether or not we need to bring Madam Pomfrey here to examine you?" he asked gravely.

All three girls blushed but shook their heads. Hermione spoke up. "No, sir. It took us all a few days to even wake up from the injuries we received fighting Bellatrix Lestrange and Lucius Malfoy, and then we spent the next day recovering from the last of our injuries, like bruises and cuts and such. Then they spent yesterday morning telling us how we'd be earning our keep at the brothel and instructing us on how to behave. It was after lunch they told us we'd be sold at an auction." The other two girls nodded their agreement when she looked to them for confirmation. "Aside from a little bit of pushing around from the proprietress, none of us was touched."

_Thank heavens,_ Minerva thought, though she bristled at the thought of any of her three wee babes – yes, including Miss Lovegood, who may as well be a Gryffindor with all she'd been through alongside her five Gryffindor friends – being handled roughly. Minerva rather hoped that when all this was done she'd have a chance to give Elapida Serpens a bit of what was coming to her. Oh, yes, she remembered the proprietress of the very Slytherin brothel quite well. Not the brightest candle in the bunch, but as vindictive as Dolores Umbridge.

Sirius also found himself immensely relieved the three girls had come from the brothel unharmed. He'd never visited the place himself, as its clientele were almost exclusively Slytherin, or rather, were almost exclusively in support of the Dark Lord's views on Pureblood superiority. His father, brother, and other male relatives, on the other hand, including the husbands and brothers of his _dear_ cousins Bellatrix and Narcissa, all frequented the brothel. He knew that among the girls who worked at the Silver Serpent, there was definitely a class system: the purer a girl's blood, the more money she fetched and the better she was treated, both by the proprietress and by the patrons. Any muggle-borns or so-called blood traitors who worked there did not do so willingly, and they were usually given to those patrons who liked to dominate and abuse their sexual partners. That Hermione, Ginny, and Luna had escaped such a fate made him feel infinitely better, loath as he was to feel grateful to Snape for taking them out of there. Now if only he could just make sure none of them suffered in that way or any other at Snape's hands either.

Dumbledore nodded at Hermione's words. "Very well. Moving on, then. Professor Snape has made me aware that the three of you may be here indefinitely. Should that be the case, we will do our utmost to ensure that you have the resources necessary to continue your education from Prince Manor. He has informed me that none of the three of you has a wand, which will of course make furthering your education as witches more difficult. But since he has also told me that you will be able to go with his house elf Mindy to Diagon Alley if you behave, perhaps we can provide you with the funds to purchase new wands. Should this war escalate into a battle in which the three of you are involved, to leave you unarmed would be unthinkable.

"That being said, Professor Snape has also explained the rules he has laid out for you, as well as the wards keeping you tied to the grounds. While I most certainly understand your desire for freedom, I trust you also see that these rules and the wards are for your own safety. I must ask that even when you are equipped with wands and the resources to further your studies in magic, you do not attempt to dismantle Professor Snape's wards and escape. Should any of you be caught alone, even outside Hogwarts, the Burrow, or Grimmauld Place, all of which though heavily protected are still being closely watched, you will be in grave danger. Even with the kinds of visitors Professor Snape occasionally receives here through his cover as a Death Eater, you are safe here, and it is certainly true that keeping you here will allow him to maintain his cover for a little while longer."

The three girls did not look happy at his words, but they all gave their agreement. Professor Dumbledore seemed to notice their reluctance, for he smiled sympathetically at them and said, "There, there. I understand this will be difficult for all of you, but keep your heads high and focus your attention on learning as much as you can so that you will not be defenseless. Mr. Potter will need you – we will all need you – when the time comes."

Somewhat heartened, they nodded again. "Well, then. That is it from our end. Is there anything we can do for the three of you?" he asked now.

Hermione took a couple of hasty steps forward, wringing her hands. "Please, sir, can you tell me…the auctioneer at the brothel said – he called me the daughter of the _late_ Richard and Jean Granger – please, I have to know," she begged, distress written all over her face.

Minerva's heart clenched with pity; Sirius's nearly stopped. _She doesn't know how they died,_ they both thought. Severus watched, expression blank except to someone who knew him very well. But Dumbledore was too focused on the young witch before him to take any notice of the tiny gleam of concern in the Potions Master's otherwise unreadable eyes.

The Headmaster sighed heavily, suddenly looking every bit his age. "They were killed in an attack on their home in Australia shortly after your capture. It seems a group of Death Eaters somehow managed to find their home and first tortured them before killing them." He seemed to hunch in the armchair, sorrow weighing him down, as grief bore Hermione to her knees on the floor as she wept. Her hands clutched at her hair as she sat there on her knees, hunched over as though she were trying to hold her grief in, but she failed as a guttural cry tore itself from her chest and throat, emerging through clenched teeth.

Severus watched, immensely bothered by the girl's reaction. Not because she shouldn't be grieving, but because it was a mirror of his own reaction when he'd learned his own actions had killed Lily. Survivor's guilt was one thing, knowing she lived on while her parents had been taken from her, thinking she could have done something, anything, but this? How could she possibly feel as if her own actions had killed them?

The other bit that bothered him was that Dumbledore sat there and did nothing to comfort her, wallowing instead in his own sorrow. But before he could speak up about it, Minerva took charge. She swept over to kneel beside her student, wrapping an arm about her shoulders and guiding her over to the sofa to sit with her. Silently she held her student to her bosom, rocking her and stroking her hair. As Hermione slowly started to quiet, Minerva looked at him, and he nodded once before calling for Mindy.

"Yes, Master Severus?" she asked, but then she saw Hermione. Distressed, her ears flattened against her head and her eyes widened. "Master Severus, what has happened? Why is Mistress Hermione weeping?" she asked, seemingly oblivious to the way she'd referred to Hermione as her mistress.

"Miss Granger has just received some very bad news about her parents. I need you to fetch me a vial of Dreamless Sleep potion from my stores, then take her to her room, give her the potion, and put her to bed," he instructed, forgetting that he had never assigned Hermione her own room. "I will check on her later, but for now I must speak with the Headmaster, the Deputy Headmistress, and Master Black."

Mindy nodded and popped away to Severus's private Potions storeroom, reappearing a minute later with the desired Potion in hand. She then approached Hermione and Minerva. "I is taking Mistress Hermione to her bed, now," she said gently.

Hermione, however, seemingly insensate with grief, did not seem to want to let go of Minerva, having latched onto the first maternal embrace she'd felt since before being captured. "Take the both of us, Mindy, and I will help put her to bed," Minerva said.

Mindy nodded, though she looked to Master Severus for confirmation. It was his house, after all. He nodded as well, so Mindy took the Deputy Headmistress's free hand in hers and popped the three of them upstairs.

"What were Miss Granger's parents doing in Australia, Albus?" Severus asked now.

It was not Albus who spoke, however, but Ginny. The old man was still sitting with his head bowed. "Oh, Professor, Hermione removed all their memories of her and gave them new identities and sent them to live in Australia. She felt they'd be in too much danger here in England, so she sent them away where nobody knew them or knew that they were the parents of Hermione Granger. She thought they'd be safe since their identities and everything had changed and they were living somewhere else," Ginny told him, tears in her eyes for her friend's loss.

Severus was suddenly filled with a great sense of injustice. When would it end? When would innocent children stop being robbed of their parents because of this thrice-cursed war? Potter, Longbottom (well, his parents were still alive, but as they were completely senseless in St. Mungo's, the boy had been robbed of them just as completely), Miss Lovegood, and now Miss Granger.

Silence fell over the room, Albus wrapped up in his own sorrow, Severus lost in contemplation and brooding, and the two girls and Sirius Black too uncomfortable to speak. Finally, though, Ginny dared once more. "Er, may we go see Hermione?" she asked timidly.

The adults looked up, but it was her own friend that answered her. "We should let Hermione sleep, Ginny. We can see her when she wakes up. I expect she'll need us then, not the least because she'll probably be a bit befuddled by the wrackspurts."

Severus and Sirius both blinked at her, all the more mystified when Ginny nodded, apparently perfectly accepting of Luna's advice. Ginny met both men's gazes and shook her head: don't ask.

Before anyone could say anything else, Minerva popped back into the room, escorted by Mindy, who promptly vanished again.

"Miss Granger is asleep. Albus, Sirius, we ought to go. We need to inform the rest of the Order that the girls are safe." Turning to Severus, she said, "We will keep you informed of the Order's plans. We will also give you information on false plans to feed You – er, V-Voldemort."

Sirius straightened and stepped forward to follow her, but when Albus made no move to rise, she strode over to him. "Wallow later, old man! It won't do Hermione any good now!" she barked, her hands on her hips. "Or did you want Potter to go longer without knowing his friends are safe and that he can stop blaming himself for their capture?"

Albus's head finally came up at this, the alertness returning to his eyes. "Yes, you are right, Minerva. Miss Granger is in good hands. I am being selfish. Of course we must reassure Harry and Ron," he agreed. He finally got to his feet, straightening his back until he stood tall once more. He turned to the two girls. "Miss Weasley, Miss Lovegood, I imagine you hardly need me to tell you this, but take care of Miss Granger. Undoubtedly she will let herself be consumed by grief and guilt if you allow her to. She must be made to understand that her parents' deaths are not her fault but the fault of sadistic cowards who would attack those who cannot fight back. She did the best she could to protect them."

He then turned his attention to Severus. For a moment, Severus thought Albus would admonish him to take care of the three girls, perhaps to make their captivity as easy on them as possible, but the old man surprised him when he simply said, "Thank you, Severus. They are in good hands." He turned and began to head for the door.

"You take care of them, Snape, or else," was all Sirius said, his voice hard and steel-gray eyes harder. Severus did not even dignify that with a response, except to send him his best sneer in farewell.

Minerva was the last to leave. Her gaze was shrewd, its piercing gleam making him wonder just how much she knew. He had his answer when she fixed him with her sternest matriarchal glare and said, "Now you listen here, my boy. I acknowledge that Miss Granger is an adult who is more than capable of making her own decisions. I don't pretend to know what is going on between you two, but the look you gave Sirius when he hugged Hermione was enough to catch my eye. I don't know what game you are playing with her, but I promise you, former student of mine or not, if you break her heart or do anything to hurt her in any way, I will hunt you down and cut off your bits and use them as a cat toy. And I expect never to hear a word about it from you or anyone else should this all be over and she returns to the school."

"Duly noted," he bit out.

She stood there for another moment, her piercing eyes examining his face, and then, apparently satisfied, she patted his cheek as her expression softened. "Do take care of yourself, too, my boy. If you don't, you'll start to look beyond your years. A twenty-year age difference is not all that scandalous, but you don't need to make it look greater." With that parting shot she turned and swept out after Dumbledore, leaving him blinking after her in confusion.

Severus stood there even after his three guests were no longer in sight, having Apparated away once they were beyond his front gates. Had he heard Minerva correctly? If he didn't know any better, if he hadn't already known he was talking to the matriarch of the house that never beat about the bush, he'd be convinced Minerva had just taken an extremely subtle approach to telling him she did not mind his pursuit of Hermione as long as he did so honorably and discreetly.

* * *

I feel like a weight has been lifted from my chest. This one took forever. I thought I'd faced writer's block before but this was absurd. For the longest time I had absolutely no idea what to do with the visit from Albus. At first it was just going to be Albus and Sirius, but then there was a tiny little voice telling me to add Minerva, that she would help me out a _ton. _And she did. I knew there was a reason I'd probably find her as my favorite Hogwarts professor if I were a student there. Anyway, thanks for the patience, you're all saints. Unfortunately, I haven't started the next chapter yet, but I think my ideas may be a bit more solid, so we'll see.

RP13


	11. Ride

_*Gasp* _What's this? A new chapter of The Elements? No way! It's about bloody time, eh? Oh, yeah.

A thousand of my deepest and most humble apologies for the interminable wait. I was draggin' my ass on this one. I tell ya, this writer's block is turning out to be a fallen tree across the road that is my story. Too big to drag out of the way all at once, so I gotta chop it up into smaller pieces, but I'm slowly working my way through. I'm not even totally satisfied with this chapter - I wanted it to be longer, but I ran out of ideas toward the end. So this is what I have, and I'll take a few days to recover and fight my way through more of that tree as I come up with more ideas. The hardest part is coming up with ideas to connect what I have to the definite plans I have for later in the story.

Disclaimer: Only things in this chapter that are mine are Mindy and Ares. Everything else belongs to JKR.

* * *

_Chapter Nine_

_~Ride~_

After a long moment in which Severus stood there pondering Minerva's words, he banished Miss Weasley and Miss Lovegood outside and shut himself in his study. He refrained from reaching for the firewhiskey, which he normally indulged in when his mind was this preoccupied, but it was far too early in the day to be drinking.

How had he not known about the raid that took Miss Granger's parents' lives? Who had initiated it? Had they taken the plan to the Dark Lord? If so, why had the Dark Lord not confided in him?

He had no answers to these questions, and knew that his thoughts would only start taking him in circles if he continued to ponder them now. He also knew that he needed to do something about Miss Weasley and Miss Lovegood. He had no interest in relations with either of them, but knew it would look suspicious if only one of the three girls had the appearance of being regularly bedded – and that was the sort of thing the Death Eaters, particularly the men, were bound to notice. So he would speak with Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott about his idea, and then to the girls themselves.

What he wasn't sure about was what he would say if he were questioned as to why he would present such a "gift" to Zabini and Nott and not to Draco Malfoy. Perhaps he could plant the idea in Voldemort's mind that the gift was a way to entice the two boys into helping Severus in his work spying on Dumbledore and the Order. The biggest problem with that, however, was that the Dark Lord might see fit to make them take the Dark Mark as Draco had.

Severus sighed and rubbed a hand down his face in frustration. Perhaps he could convince the Dark Lord that Nott and Zabini would be more useful as spies and not full Death Eaters. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that would be the best idea. Provided, of course, the two boys agreed to take the girls in the first place.

At least he knew he didn't have to worry about the girls' well-being within the Zabini and Nott households; neither boy had immediate family members who were Death Eaters. Both boys' families supported Voldemort's views, or rather, they professed to, but neither family participated in the horrendous activities of the Death Eaters. Severus was quite well aware that family came first for both – despite Mrs. Zabini's similarities to a black widow with her long list of former husbands – and so if Blaise and Theodore came home announcing that they would be holding captive (read: protecting) two members of Harry Potter's inner circle, he knew that the most likely reaction would be for the mothers to nod and turn to their respective "captives" to inquire how they took their tea.

Severus's only hope was that the two girls would go along with the plan. Ideally, of course, Miss Weasley and Miss Lovegood would allow Zabini and Nott to bed them for real to cement their charade as sex slaves, but if they insisted, other courses of action could be taken.

Now that he'd worked out a plan, he decided to Floo-call both boys; the summer holidays were not yet over, and Floo-calling would be quicker than sending an owl.

An hour later, Severus pulled himself from his fireplace with a sigh of relief. Both boys had agreed to the plan, and though as Slytherins they'd naturally tried to hide their interest, just as naturally they could not hide their true feelings on the matter from their Head of House, the consummate Slytherin.

Now he needed to speak to Miss Weasley and Miss Lovegood. With another sigh, this time of resignation – for this conversation would be much less pleasant than the same conversation with Zabini and Nott – he called for Mindy to find the two girls and escort them to him.

As he'd feared, this conversation did not go smoothly. Of course, in the end the two girls agreed, but not until after Miss Weasley nearly pitched a fit. He was only glad Hermione had not been present as well, as Miss Weasley's temper he could handle; what he didn't think he'd be able to deal with was Hermione's temper _and_ cunning besides. What a nightmare that would have been; the temper of a Gryffindor and the deviousness of a Slytherin, not to mention a Ravenclaw's analytical mind, all rolled up into one tiny, brown-eyed and wild-haired package.

The two girls would leave in the morning. He would allow the three girls one last night together, and then Miss Weasley would go to Blaise Zabini while Miss Lovegood went to Mr. Nott. Both girls would work out with their respective captor/protectors how best to keep up their ruse as sex slaves.

_And then you'll have Hermione all to yourself,_ a small, smug voice in his mind chimed in slyly. _You'll be able to work on getting her into your bed properly, without interference from anyone. The only other one here is Mindy, and she's convinced Hermione will be good for you. No worries about her._

Now that he'd settled things with both the Messrs. Zabini and Nott and with the Misses Lovegood and Weasley, he decided to go check on Hermione. He was surprised, however, to find that Hermione was not in either of her two classmates' beds, nor was she in his, though the bedclothes of his bed were rumpled. So it seemed that when Mindy and Minerva had taken Hermione up to put her to bed, Mindy had brought them here to his quarters, complying with his instructions of the previous night to put her in his rooms.

He was about to call Mindy to ask her where Hermione might be, but he decided that Mindy was most likely busy with the midday meal, and decided to spare her the trouble and go find the errant Miss Granger himself. The first place he looked, naturally, was the library, but she was not there. However, he soon remembered her reaction to the sight of the stables during their morning tour, so he decided he might as well look there.

He'd expected to find her in the barn, perhaps grooming one of the mounts within, but once more he was surprised. Instead of finding her in the barn, he found her in one of the pastures. And of course, in keeping with her bloody Gryffindor tendencies, the horse with her just _had_ to be the most volatile stallion in his stable.

Very few people had any idea that Severus Snape, Potions Master and Hogwarts Dungeon Bat, had a passion for taming horses. He kept the ones he had for his own riding pleasure, and therefore he only had eight of his own, but he occasionally helped acquaintances in both the Wizarding and Muggle worlds with gentling the wilder additions to their own stables. All the horses in his stable had come from such acquaintances who had given up on taming the animals, and rather than wait for him to try to help them, they'd practically begged him to take them off their hands. Not particularly caring to – _ahem_ – look a gift horse in the mouth, he'd not put up much of a fight.

The iron-gray Arabian stallion, aptly named Ares, was the most difficult horse Severus had ever dealt with. He had almost given up and sold the beast himself, but something, perhaps a particularly Gryffindorish disinclination to give up, urged him to try one more time. So he had, and then once more, and once more, and with every time he tried, there was a little bit of improvement in the horse's willingness to let him near it that caused him to keep trying. Finally, his efforts paid off, until he was running his hands all over the beast's body, then riding it bareback, and finally with a saddle. He still wouldn't let the hostlers ride him, so in order to give the stallion his daily exercise, Severus rode him himself.

Right now, Severus watched as Hermione reached out a hand to the stallion before her, and blinked in surprise when Ares nudged her hand with his muzzle. He gaped in outright astonishment when she wrapped her arms around the beast's neck and buried her face in the smooth coat there; he was too shocked to do anything when he realized she was crying. But he nearly had a heart attack when she pulled away only to start running her hands along Ares's back before pushing down on it to swing onto the stallion's bare back.

Panicking, Severus strode forward, opening his mouth to bellow at her to get down before the blasted animal killed her, before he realized that bellowing would only spook the horse, which _would_ kill her. Helpless, Severus could only shut his mouth and continue to approach steadily, praying to any god listening that Ares would by some miracle not take issue with a stranger sitting on his back. But then, to his even greater amazement, Hermione tightened her legs and Ares obediently moved forward.

Now _that_ caused Severus to halt in his tracks. He was quite glad Hermione was paying attention to the horse and no one else was out here to see, as he must surely look a sight with his jaw gaping open.

As he watched Hermione riding the temperamental Ares, he noted that Ares actually appeared to be deliberately _trying_ to be on his best behavior. Clearly the stallion was smitten with the young witch sitting astride his back, and Severus found himself musing that she seemed to attract volatile souls like a magnet. He felt oddly detached from the situation, as if he were watching a Muggle film of himself watching Hermione parading about on the back of a potentially lethal animal. But the ending he dreaded never came.

Instead, he watched Hermione and Ares riding around the pasture, first at a walk until Ares seemed to understand exactly how she would ask for what she wanted, and then at a trot to get them both nicely energized. Then Hermione trotted Ares to one corner of the pasture, her eyes on the far end of the pasture. They seemed to pause there for a breathless moment, and then she was urging him into a walk, then a faster walk, then a trot, and then a canter, before she leaned over his neck and urged him into a flat-out gallop.

Ares's nostrils flared as he took a deep breath, glorifying in the fresh air passing into his powerful lungs, and his tail arched high as he was filled with a sense of exhilaration. Though his movements were in obedience to the will of his rider, he was finding his greatest freedom in this strange communion with the oddly enchanting human sitting on his back. He could sense that the young filly with the wild chestnut mane was losing herself in the thrill of the run, the wind in her mane and his muscles bunching and hooves pounding beneath her body. She was a sensual young thing, and had his brain been less horse-like and more human-like, the stallion that he was would have greatly appreciated that fact. But of course, her sensuality was lost to him. To him, all she was was a kindred soul with whom he could glorify in the beauty of running.

Severus, convinced by now that Hermione had somehow managed to win the allegiance of the fiery stallion and that the horse would never deliberately hurt her, allowed himself to watch, entranced by the sight of the girl and the horse losing themselves in the run.

Finally, they slowed back down to a canter, and then Hermione eased the stallion back into a gentle trot, which they maintained for a bit before slowing back down to a crisp walk. After such a run, the stallion needed to be cooled down gradually; colic was the last thing she wanted for her new friend.

Once she was satisfied with the amount of time she had given the stallion to cool down, she slid from his back but remained at his side, stroking her hand along his sweaty neck as silent tears slipped down her cheeks. "Thank you," she murmured, her voice breaking. "I needed that more than you could possibly know." The stallion nickered and blew gently at her, as if in reply to say she was welcome.

Severus, who had by now reached the fence of the pasture, opened his mouth once more to call out to her, but was once more cut off. This time, the interruption came in the form of Ginny Weasley and Luna Lovegood.

"Hermione," Miss Weasley's voice called. Both the girl and stallion looked up to see the two friends approaching. With a snort, the stallion pranced off a short distance, back to his general wariness of strangers.

Hermione waited for them to reach her, not even trying to hide her tears. They wouldn't pity her. She knew they would understand and stand by her in support. They wouldn't talk about it, for they knew she wouldn't be ready for that; instead, they would simply talk about anything and everything else. Inane chatter was what she needed, something to ease her grief.

When the two girls did reach her, they said nothing, simply drawing her between them and wrapping their arms about her in a solid show of comfort, like a warm blanket wrapped around her to ward off the terrors of a midnight thunderstorm. They stood like that and let her cry herself dry. In an odd and somewhat out-of-character poetic turn, Severus found himself musing that the three of them looked like something out of a painting, the Three Graces standing in the middle of a green pasture dotted with trees on a warm, sunny day, a horse grazing in the background.

Finally, he decided to let the three of them be. Miss Weasley and Miss Lovegood would take care of Hermione for the time being, though he supposed he needed to speak once more with the three of them so that everyone was on the same page regarding the transferring of the Misses Weasley and Lovegood into the hands of the Messrs Zabini and Nott. He turned and went back inside the Manor, unnoticed by the three girls, and as he stepped into the foyer, he called for Mindy.

"Yes, Master Severus?" she said as she appeared.

"I must speak with Miss Granger, Miss Weasley, and Miss Lovegood regarding the plan to have Miss Weasley and Miss Lovegood stay with Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott. In an hour, please bring them to the library and I will speak with them there," he requested.

Mindy looked puzzled. "Missy Ginny and Missy Luna is not staying here with Mistress Hermione?" she asked.

Severus shook his head, noting once again that Mindy didn't seem to realize she'd called Hermione "Mistress," and replied, "No, they will not." He then explained to the elf the conclusions he'd come to regarding Voldemort's voyeuristic tendencies, his own disinterest in Miss Weasley and Miss Lovegood, and his idea to appear to have given each of the two Slytherin youths a little "gift."

Mindy expressed sympathy for Hermione, saying it was a shame her poor mistress would be separated from her two friends during her difficult time. She admonished Master Severus, saying with a wag of her finger that he'd better make arrangements with Mister Zabini and Mister Nott so that the three girls could visit everyday and that he'd also better pay attention to Mistress Hermione's moods and comfort her when her friends could not. _Is no sense in Master Severus making Mistress Hermione resent him,_ she thought to herself, _or else Mistress Hermione won't ever be Mistress of Prince Manor._

Meanwhile, back in the pasture, the three girls had moved to sit in the grass, Ginny and Luna telling her about the things they'd done while she slept. They'd explored the grounds for a bit and told her of their discovery of a secluded pond in the small wood at the southern end of the estate. It would be a lovely place to swim in the heat of the summer days, and enough of the pond's shores were lit by the sun that they would be able to lie out and bask if they preferred that to swimming.

After perhaps an hour, they'd gone back inside, this time going to the library. There they perused all the books, looking for books on all kinds of magic you could do without a wand which the three of them might study during their time at the manor. Their search had not been fruitless, either; among other discoveries, they'd found quite a few very promising books on Animagus transformations as well as Elemental Magic.

Just as the two younger girls knew it would, the casual chatter helped to pull their friend and sister from her depression, but, perhaps inevitably, the talk took a more somber turn. Hermione had expressed an interest in exploring the grounds further with them this afternoon, saying that first thing in the morning after breakfast they could all go to the library and begin their studies in wandless magic. Of course, this idea presented a problem for the other two. With apprehensive and slightly pained expressions, Ginny and Luna haltingly explained the arrangements Professor Snape had made for them to be taken into custody by the Notts and the Zabinis.

When their explanation was finished, they watched their silent friend in concern. Her brows were furrowed in distress; she looked as if she'd just realized she'd lost something important and had no idea where to look for it. But then, alarmingly quickly, her expression turned to one of rage.

Without another word to the two of them, Hermione got to her feet and stormed her way across the pasture and back to the manor. Surprised at the speed of her movement but not truthfully by her anger, Ginny and Luna followed her.

* * *

Well, I hope that's enough to satisfy you for now. See, I haven't forgotten you! Or The Elements! In fact, I promise I won't ever post anything I'm not sure I'll finish. I already have at least the major conflicts/climactic events planned out for all my works-in-progress; once I've written the stories through those events, the conclusions should pretty much write themselves. So take heart: I might move slower than two clumsy people in a three-legged race, but I will reach that finish line!

RP13


	12. Learning

__Okay, y'all. Less of a wait between my last chapter and this one. I think I've managed to chop my way through a good chunk of that tree blockin' my road - I have a better idea now of how I'm gonna connect what I have so far to the rest of the story. Hopefully there won't be any more waits as long as that last one. Y'all are a bunch of saints for your patience with me.

Disclaimer: Only Mindy is mine in this chapter. Everything else belongs to JKR. Well, Prince Manor is mine, too, now that I think about it. After all, JKR only ever talked about Spinner's End in regards to Snape's home away from Hogwarts, and I guess I could have made it work for my plot, but I think the easy decadence of Prince Manor is more fitting as the setting of Snape's ongoing seduction of Hermione, don't you agree?

* * *

_Chapter Ten_

_~Learning~_

She stormed into the Manor, heading instinctively for the study. Chances were he'd be there or in the library, and since Ginny and Luna had only recently been in the library themselves, she figured he'd most likely be in his study.

Before her two friends could catch up to her, she'd reached the study door, and Luna stopped, grabbing Ginny's elbow, and shook her head. "We should give them the chance to work this out," she said without a trace of her usual outlandishness. As Luna continued to speak, Ginny realized that her friend was actually making more sense than she had in a while. "Our interference will only serve to make Hermione angrier on our behalf instead of giving Professor Snape the chance to persuade her to see his side. If she never considers his side of things, they'll never have a chance together."

Ginny agreed with reluctance, wishing she could be privy to that fight. She followed Luna back to the library.

Hermione blew into the study like a small tornado, announcing herself with a rather aggressive, "What the hell, Snape?!"

Severus looked up from his desk, his expression mild in a disconcertingly Dumbledorish way. "Miss Granger. Finished with your little conversation with your friends, then? I take it the subject matter of your conversation was not to your liking?"

"Ha," she snorted humorlessly. The harsh sound struck the inside of Severus's skull and he mused, suppressing an expression of distaste, that the sound coming from her was just wrong. "You could say that. Tell me, was it not enough that I've been robbed of not only my parents, but also Harry and Ron – hell, even the _rest_ of the Wizarding World? You have to take Ginny and Luna away, too?" she demanded.

"Nonsense," he replied calmly, setting down the quill he'd been using as he made notes in the margins of a recently acquired book on Potions designed to put one in touch with their own emotions, disregarding any environmental factors leading to deliberate suppression of or focus on any emotion over others. "They will be allowed to visit every day. I'm not sending them away completely. But it is ultimately safer for all involved if it appears to the Dark Lord that their particular…services…are being enjoyed by _someone_ who supports his views, or at least professes to. Particularly since I have no interest in said services myself, despite the fact that they were part of a triad of witches I allegedly purchased for my own pleasure."

She scowled. "No, of course, I forgot, you're only interested in _my_ services. So what, Zabini and Nott are supposed to have sex with Ginny and Luna because you don't want to?" In her anger and fear of the unknown that would come with being parted from her friends, the support system that she not only needed for herself but was a part of for their sakes as well, she attacked him verbally.

He frowned. "No, Theodore and Blaise are supposed to take Miss Lovegood and Miss Weasley into their homes so that I do not have to produce or fabricate memories of sex with them. Whether there is any sex between them is entirely up to the four of them, and in both homes would be mutually consensual. As for taking your friends away from you, the only time I can tell you for sure that you will not have them around is at night, when they will each be with their respective hosts and you will be with me."

When he saw that she still looked like she wanted to be difficult, he sighed. "Miss Granger, do you truly think that even if there had been an easier way of getting the three of you out of that brothel without compromising my ruse with the Dark Lord, I still wouldn't have taken it?" He rubbed his temples with his fingers for a moment before leaning back in his chair, bracing his elbows on its armrests, and clasping his hands over his chest as he met her gaze steadily.

"When I saw you on that platform, looking scared and defiant as though you would give hell to any man who thought to purchase you, I knew I had to get the three of you out of there. It wasn't until your outfit registered in my mind and I realized just how erotic you looked in that sinful dress, like something straight out of any wizard's deepest fantasies, that I came up with an idea for _how_ to get you out of there. What made the whole thing easier was the knowledge that I most certainly would get you into my bed if I got the chance to make you want me as badly as I wanted you then. Of course I thought of playing on your natural inclination to repay a kindness and getting you into my bed in order to repay me for saving you and your friends, but I wanted – want – you to come to me because it is something _you _want, something _you_ can't resist." His eyes darkened, suddenly fastened to hers like a snare; she couldn't tear her gaze away as he rose to his feet, walked around his desk, and approached her.

"I still fully intend to make you want me. That has not changed. But it will be for more than simply what it takes to create a memory to satisfy the Dark Lord and keep him believing I am still loyal to him," he told her as he stood in front of her. Not a single part of his body was touching hers until he took her chin in a gentle grip between his thumb and forefinger and tilted her head up so he could look into her eyes. "If I thought I could manage it, I would completely forego the memory, and just keep you in my bed because I want you and want you to want me in return." With that, he ducked his head and brushed only the ghost of a kiss across her lips.

When he broke the kiss, he didn't release her chin, but neither did she try to pull out of his hold. "I swear your friends will be kept safe. No one in the Zabini family is among the Death Eater ranks, and Nott Senior is the only one in his household who is, but he has become increasingly disillusioned with life as a Death Eater and with the Dark Lord in general. His greatest loyalty is to his family, so if he knows that his son is committed to keeping Miss Lovegood safe, then he will make that his goal as well." He gave her a small smirk and added, "And if we discover that Miss Lovegood is in fact not safe with the Notts, then I will accompany you to their home where I will deal with Nott Senior while you hex Theodore within an inch of his life. As for Blaise Zabini, not only do I believe him to be interested in Miss Weasley, but I'm also positive he fears her temper too much to make sure she is anything but safe with his family. And his mother is far more inclined to feed his guests into a stupor than to curse them into one."

He was rewarded – and immensely relieved – when he saw her tiny smile. He'd managed to convince her.

Hermione gave a small defeated sigh and pulled herself from his grasp. "All right, all right. You've convinced me. Mostly. But if we find that either Ginny or Luna is at risk, I'll deal with their…hosts, I believe you called them…first, and then I'll deal with you. I may not have a wand to curse you with, but I'm resourceful. And I have a vindictive streak of my own. Remember Umbridge and her incident with the centaurs?" At his nod, she said, "That was me."

He raised his eyebrows. "Point taken," he said, nodding slowly.

After a moment, he met her gaze again, this time with a small smirk on his face. "Well, Miss Granger, more than twelve hours at Prince Manor and you still have yet to request the use of my library. Consider me shocked."

The transformative effect of his words and their implication on her expression was instantaneous; her face lit up like the Hogwarts Great Hall at Christmas. "Oh, may I? I always wondered what your personal collection of books would be like!"

He chuckled. "Of course you have. Come then. I will accompany you. No doubt your friends are already there. The three of you can browse through the books and start looking for things to study while I answer any questions you may have." He led the way from the study and they walked to the library in a silence that was more comfortable than most of the interactions they'd had so far.

When they arrived in the library, they found that Ginny and Luna were indeed already there. They were sitting side by side on one of the sofas and browsing together through a large tome that rested on the coffee table before them.

"It looks complicated," Ginny was saying doubtfully. "I'm not sure how much we'll be able to manage during the time we're living with Zabini and Nott and Snape."

Luna shook her head. "Hermione said that Professor Lupin and Mr. Black and Harry's dad managed it within their last two or three years at school, and _without_ any help. We'll have not only Hermione herself – and if the Marauders could do it in three years, she can do it in one – but we'll also have Professor Snape, if he agrees to let us."

"Let you what, Miss Lovegood?" Severus interjected as he and Hermione approached, though the mention of the Marauders gave him a fairly good idea of what they were talking about. The two girls rose at the approach of their friend and their former teacher.

"Study Animagus transformations," Ginny replied candidly. "We thought that learning to become Animagi might be useful if we're ever able to come back out of…" She was about to say "captivity" but glanced up at Snape's face and changed her mind, saying instead, "…hiding, and join the fight again."

"We also considered studying Elemental magic as well," Luna piped up. With a slightly dreamy smile on her face, which she usually took on when speaking about learning more obscure magic, she added, "It was actually the memory of us having been called The Elements during the auction at the Silver Serpent that gave us the idea."

By this point, Severus's eyebrows had climbed as high as they could reach. None of these girls did anything halfway, did they? Animagus transformations _and_ Elemental magic?

"Well," he said at last. "You will certainly be keeping yourselves busy. Neither Elemental magic nor Animagus transformations are subjects that may be learned on a whim. To study both will take great determination and focus. Of course, since you are not focusing on work for other classes at the present time, it will not be as difficult for you to devote yourselves to the study of these magics." After a moment in which he looked thoughtful, he turned and began to move among the bookshelves, searching.

Moments later, he came back with a large, heavy leather-bound tome that looked old and yet well-cared for.

"This book will be the starting point for your studies in Animagus transformations. It is divided into three parts. The first part includes a background history of animal shape-shifting magic and the theory behind the magic. The second part is full of cautionary stories regarding the consequences of sidestepping particular procedures, attempting the transformations before your mind has been significantly conditioned and disciplined, and attempting transformations with only half your concentration. And the third part will instruct you on how to achieve the proper mindset simply for casting the charm which will reveal your form to you. Only once you have successfully cast that charm will you be able to proceed with learning the transformative processes." His brow lowered then in a frown as he gazed at them sternly, suddenly and once more the dreaded Potions Master who lived and taught in the dungeons. "I absolutely forbid you to read this book in any order other than beginning to end. To do so will cloud your judgment so that when you are supposed to be concentrating on only the history and theory, or worse, on achieving the necessary mental discipline for successfully casting the charm, your fears of what could go wrong will be niggling in the backs of your minds and preventing you from devoting your attention to the area it's required."

The three girls nodded solemnly, and after he was convinced that they would heed his warning, he continued. "I will create two additional duplicates of this book so that each of you may be able to keep one with you and study on your own when you are apart. You will hold off on casting the charm until _all_ three of you have finished reading the book. Should any one of you finish reading earlier than the others, continue working on disciplining your mind so that when you do cast the charm you will be successful. Once all three of you have finished reading the book, the three of you will meet back here with me and will cast the charm one by one. Once you have cast the charm successfully and discovered your forms, then you may begin reading the books that will walk you through learning the transformative processes.

"Elemental magic is just as difficult as learning to become an Animagus. In some ways it is more so, because it requires one to have a natural affinity for it in order for you to wield it well. Those who do not have a natural talent for Elemental magic can only wield it in small ways and are far more common than those who do. They can light only a handful of candles as opposed to creating and manipulating fires to have less heat and more flame or more heat, less flame, and more smoke or to hold certain shapes. They can adjust the temperatures of a tub full of water but cannot create a hot spring where one does not naturally exist. They can produce falling drops of water from the palm of a hand as from a watering can but cannot call rain to thirsty fields. They can keep a flower blooming longer than natural but cannot raise a forest from the ground in minutes. You may or may not have a talent for Elemental magic. If you do not, you will simply learn how to use it in small ways, but anything you do will take deliberate, conscious effort otherwise nothing will happen. If you do have a talent for it, then all your concentration and will power will go into learning how to control the ability, for a natural Elemental out of control is one of the most dangerous witches or wizards in existence.

"Perhaps one of the most interesting facts about Elemental magic is that a witch or wizard's natural talent for Elemental magic is not related in any way to their power as a witch or wizard in general. Both Professor Dumbledore and Lord Voldemort are exceptionally powerful wizards, but neither of them can do much more than perform moderate acts of Elemental Magic. On the other hand, your fellow Gryffindor Mr. Finnegan's particular proclivity for pyrotechnics actually seems to stem from a natural talent in Elemental magic – specifically, with fire. All of his accidents involving fire are a product of his struggles to learn to control it." So saying, he waved his wand over the book he held in his hand, and a second later, he was offering one copy to each of the three girls. Then he looked at the books they had on the small table, and a moment later, he started arranging the books, saying as he did so, "Read these books on Elemental magic in the order that I have arranged them, and it will facilitate your learning about it."

He stepped back and looked at the three girls, his eyes lingering longest on Hermione's face as he relished the gleam of excitement in her eyes at the prospect of learning something new. But he could also see shadows lurking behind the gleam, and he knew that she was desperate to seize this chance to distract herself from the raw grief, from the loss of her parents, clawing at her heart. As much as he would have liked to take her to his bed now to find out just _how_ earth-shattering every move within her would be, he knew she needed this time with her friends and her books. There would be time later, when her friends were relocated to the homes of their respective Slytherin hosts, to explore the limits of her more carnal knowledge.

To that end, he spoke once more. "I will leave the three of you to your reading now. I will be in my study should you have any questions. Should you need anything else, simply call for Mindy." With that, he took one last look at Hermione, then turned and swept from the library.

Hermione, who had barely been able to breathe while her gaze was held by the dark man who had just left them, released her breath on a shaky sigh. Realizing that her knees were suddenly wobbly, she sank into the armchair behind her. Ginny and Luna followed her example, sitting on the sofa where they'd been before as they regarded her, amusement on the red-head's face and the usual serene expression on the blonde's.

"Say what you like, Hermione," Ginny started, smirking, "but I think you're just in denial. Anyone with eyes can see how much you want each other. And the more you resist him the more fun you make the chase for him. I'd be willing to bet he'll have you under him by the end of the week."

Shocked, Hermione exclaimed, "Ginny!"

"Hermione!" Ginny mimicked, laughing.

"I don't – he's not – I – oh, just mind your reading!" Hermione exclaimed, flustered. Her cheeks stained pink, she picked up her copy of the book on Animagus transformations and opened it to the first page, ducking her head and allowing her curls to fall forward to hide her face. Of course, she missed Ginny and Luna exchanging a meaningful look. Had she seen their expressions, Hermione would have known instantly that they were plotting something. As it was, she was blissfully unaware that Ginny and Luna had just silently made a decision to have a little chat with Mindy.

Severus had just sat himself behind his desk in the study and was reaching to continue his notes in the book he'd been marking in earlier, titled _Emotion Potions for Self-Discovery_ and authored by the renowned Greek Wizarding Psychologist and Potions Mistress Psyche A. Pathos, when a sudden burning of his left forearm caused him to drop the book with a gasp. Clutching his forearm and gritting his teeth, he stood and barked, "Mindy!"

A fraction of a second later, Mindy popped into view. "Yes, Master Severus?" she asked, worried by the abrupt tone with which he'd summoned her.

"I'm being called," he said as he silently conjured his Death Eater robes and mask; the mask appeared in his hand while his robes materialized over his black trousers and white button-down shirt. "Please inform Miss Granger, Miss Weasley, and Miss Lovegood and tell them I have ordered you to forbid them to go outside. Please tell them also not to worry and to continue with their studies. The Mark is not burning as badly as it has in the past, so I believe the Dark Lord only wishes to speak to me. I do not believe he is angry."

Mindy bobbed her head in assent. "I is informing the Missies right away. If you is not returning in time for dinner, I is preparing the meal for them and saving some for when you gets home. Be safe, Master Severus," she told him.

"Thank you, Mindy," he replied as he strode to the fireplace and took a handful of Floo Powder. He stepped in, tossed the powder down, and called, "Malfoy Manor!" before he vanished in a swirl of roaring green flames.

Mindy, too, vanished, reappearing in the library with a pop. She paused to look around for Mistress Hermione and her two friends and found them seated on the sofa and one of the armchairs. As she approached them, she spoke. "I has been told by Master Severus to tell Missies that he is called away by the Dark Lord," she said in a business-like tone, hoping that speaking calmly would keep the three girls from worrying. "He is telling me to tell you that he thinks the Dark Lord is not angry but wants to only speak to him. He is saying that his Dark Mark is not burning badly like it does when the Dark Lord is angry. He is also telling me to tell you not to go outside, and to continue reading."

When she finished speaking, Mindy saw that her words had not had the desired effect of keeping the three girls calm. Mistress Hermione in particular looked distressed; her face was white and her eyes were wide, her book abandoned on her lap.

"Please, Missies, do not worry," Mindy beseeched them. "Master Severus is a smart, strong wizard. He is knowing when the Dark Lord is angry and wanting to punish him. He is knowing how to prepare himself for his meeting with the Dark Lord. If he is telling Mindy he will be all right, then he will be all right."

When she saw that Mistress Hermione did not look particularly comforted, Mindy thought for a moment, then said, "Come, Missies. We is going to wait in Master Severus's study. If you brings your books, Mindy will make tea. Special calming tea will make things better." She was relieved when the three girls gathered their books and stood to follow her to the study. She saw them settled in the study, and then she popped away to the kitchens to make tea, hot, strong coffee for Mistress Hermione, and biscuits.

Moments later, she popped back into the study with the tea, coffee, and biscuits on a tray. She placed the tray on the table and popped away once more, this time reappearing with a basket of what looked like clothing that needed mending. "I is waiting for Master Severus with you, Missies," she announced. "He is coming back unharmed, you will see."

Hermione, still pale, nodded, clutching her warm mug of coffee in both hands. "Yes, thank you, Mindy. We appreciate it," she murmured.

The four of them settled in their respective places to wait. At one point, Luna and Ginny had wandered away from the coffee table, instead taking their copies of the book on Animagus transformations to the two chairs before Professor Snape's desk. The combination of the tea and Mindy's soothing presence had taken effect on the two of them and they were able to concentrate on reading without worry. Hermione, on the other hand, could not seem to let go of her worry and couldn't concentrate on the books. Instead, she sat in her large armchair, knees drawn up to her chest and her bare feet tucked in close under her legs, her shoes abandoned on the floor. She still clutched her coffee mug like a lifeline as she stared sightlessly into the fire.

After what seemed like an interminable amount of time, though in reality Professor Snape had only been gone an hour, the fire flared suddenly green. Hermione looked up, startled, but when she saw Professor Snape step calmly from the fire only to pause on the rug before the fireplace in order to dust himself off, she shot from her chair, the coffee mug tumbling heedlessly from her hands to spill all over the carpet. "Sir! You're all right!" she said breathlessly, and a fraction of a second later, Severus found an armful of young Gryffindor witch clinging to him like a barnacle.

* * *

There. Hm. I wonder what the meeting between Snape and ol' Moldy Shorts was about. Well, actually _I_ know what it was about, it's _you_ that's doing the wondering. But no worries, this time I actually _know_ what it was about, I just chose to leave you in suspense. Yeah, I know, all you ever seem to do is wait on me, right? If you're not waitin' on me to get my shit straight and get over my writer's block I'm makin' you wait on me as I play with your minds with the suspense. As if you wouldn't do the same thing in my place. Well, maybe those of you who wait to put the story up until after it's _all_ written wouldn't do that, but then I like to get feedback _as_ I write, because otherwise it's not constructive criticism, it's just criticism._  
_


	13. Occlumency

So. Long time no see. Or maybe it's not _that_ long. I'm not actually sure I remember when I last updated. But anyway, this story is skipping along, the long gaps are just reality intruding. The last couple of weeks have been...interesting...what with my granddad passing away a week and a half ago and the start of summer hours at work (which means the shelter closes an hour later so I'm often working 11 hours or more a day). I don't expect my life will regain any semblance of normalcy until the summer is over.

So here's the next chapter. I hope it doesn't sound too disjointed. Or that I'm giving way too much attention to the subject of Occlumency. Or that Snape isn't talking too much. There are times in this story where I feel like he lectures like a college professor and not like a teacher instructing teenagers like he's supposed to be. Maybe that's just because my college experience is so much more recent, while I graduated high school over five years ago, so I'm more used to the way college professors teach. And I'm rambling again, aren't I? That's my cue to shut up.

Disclaimer: No, Your Honor, I did not intend to steal the Harry Potter world or the characters in it. I only meant to play with them. Credit for killing off Snape just when we started to feel really really bad for him and sticking Hermione with Ron in a relationship that is cliche and, in my honest opinion, unlikely and unrealistic goes completely to JK Rowling. I swear I'm completely innocent of those particular crimes.

* * *

_Chapter Eleven_

_~Occlumency~_

_~Flashback~_

"_Severus," came the hiss he had come to anticipate with great distaste. As always, he forced himself to clamp down on his urge to shudder in revulsion._

"_My Lord," he said, pouring false reverence into his tone as he knelt before "his Lord" on one knee with his head bowed._

"_Come, come, Severus, rise," said the cold, cruel voice of the snake-man on the opulent throne-like chair in the middle of the Malfoy Manor ballroom. "There is no need for you to assume such a submissive stance! You know you are favored!"_

_Favored he may be, he thought to himself sardonically, but the moment one of Voldemort's followers forgot to display the proper subservience was the moment said follower found himself twitching – at best, screaming at worst – in agony under the Cruciatus Curse on the floor._

"_You wished to see me, my Lord?" Severus said now that he had permission to stand._

_Voldemort flapped a hand as if to say the matter was inconsequential, merely an instance of his own curiosity getting the better of him. Of course, had Severus delayed in appearing, well, Voldemort _was_ rather fond of inflicting pain._

"_I merely wished to know how you are faring with your three delightful new playthings," Voldemort said. "No doubt you are aware that several of your brethren were present at the Silver Serpent and so were able to witness you making the purchase. Naturally, they brought me word of your purchase. No doubt you were busy settling your new playthings into your home, otherwise I trust you would have informed me of the purchase yourself."_

_He spoke mildly enough – for Voldemort – but the underlying warning was unmistakable: he was in a good mood today, and so was willing to allow Severus's silence on the matter slide._

"_Forgive me, my Lord. I was remiss in forgetting to inform you. Your mercy is unparalleled."_

"_Have you…enjoyed…their services yet? I imagine three playthings such as they would provide endless delight." Again, Severus forced himself to tamp down the urge to sneer in disgust at the lascivious tone with which Voldemort spoke._

"_No, my Lord. It is part of why I neglected to inform you immediately of the purchase. I have been occupied with gaining their trust. I have concluded that it will be more difficult than I had initially anticipated. I am forced to reconsider my original intent. I have decided instead to present the Weasley and Lovegood girls to two of my more upstanding and trustworthy Slytherin students as a gift in the hopes that I might entice Mr. Zabini and Mr. Nott to assist me with spying within the walls of the school," Severus replied, his tone carefully neutral. "Gaining the trust of three witches as stubborn and pig-headed as they will be easier if they are separated. I believe Mr. Zabini and Mr. Nott will be capable of earning the trust of the younger two while I work on the third."_

"_Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott, you say?" Voldemort inquired, sounding intrigued despite himself. "Yes…both from fine, upstanding Pureblood families, and no doubt young Mr. Nott is eager to follow in his father's footsteps," he added with a nod to Nott Senior. "Though the Zabini family has never turned out Death Eaters. I wonder, Severus, why, when you have young Draco residing within the walls of Slytherin house, would you not utilize his services as a spy instead of one of the two you have chosen?"_

"_Draco has attracted far too much attention to himself with his constant antagonizing of Harry Potter, my Lord," Severus responded with a glance at the blonde of whom he spoke. To his credit, the boy's face was mostly blank, but for a faint flush of indignation on his cheeks. "Neither Mr. Zabini nor Mr. Nott, though both of the same house as Mr. Malfoy, have attracted as much attention to themselves individually. It will be far easier for them to operate under that old fool's nose. It is my hope that they may be useful in scouting out potential future recruits to our cause among the students of other houses. Mr. Zabini's observational skills are unparalleled, and will be useful in determining which students to target, while Mr. Nott is possessed of an understated charm that compels other students to listen to him."_

_Voldemort bought the story hook, line, and sinker, as the Muggles would say. He looked thoughtful, rubbing chin hairs that did not exist. "Hm. And do you think they would be good candidates to take the Mark?"_

_Severus carefully appeared to think seriously about the question for a moment, and then answered, "As eager as I am certain both of them would be to join their classmate and companion Draco in our ranks, I am not sure it would be wise. The Mark is challenging enough for one student to hide, but three? All in the same house? No, my Lord, it will be far easier for them to avoid suspicion if they do not carry the Mark. Perhaps we might consider this a sort of test? If they succeed in this task I shall set before them, perhaps then they might be considered worthy of taking the Mark."_

_Voldemort nodded pensively, his expression calculating. "Your proposal has great merit, Severus. Very well. As you are Mr. Zabini and Mr. Nott's Head of House, you are in the best position to determine the likelihood of their success. I leave it to you to determine how to utilize their talents, and I will expect results. I will be _most_ disappointed if neither of them has any names to offer by the time I summon you for the first time after the school term starts."_

_Severus inclined his head. "Yes, of course, my Lord. I shall inform them of the plan immediately."_

"_Excellent," Voldemort hissed. Then, rather uncharacteristically, he rubbed his hands together like a villain in vaudeville, and said, with a lecherous gleam in his scarlet eyes, "Now, tell me. When do you intend to deflower the Mudblood? Those of your compatriots in the Silver Serpent told me how the auctioneer described her, and were I not above such petty inclinations, I would be jealous, Severus. In fact, I wish to see her in action myself. Take her tomorrow night, and the following day, you will bring me a memory of the encounter. Do whatever it takes to get her into your bed – force her if you must – but I want to see it." He paused, looking thoughtful with a calculating gleam in his eye, and Severus knew that what the Dark Lord said next was a product of his ever-present paranoia which caused him to constantly need to assure himself of his followers' loyalty. "And in two weeks there shall be a gala here at Malfoy Manor where you and your two students may showcase your little concubines. I will take personal pleasure in reminding the Mudblood of the removal of her precious virginity and her new status as your toy through physical…examination."_

_For the third time, Severus forced his expression to keep from twitching into one of distaste, and he inclined his head. "As you wish, my Lord."_

"_Excellent. That will be all, Severus. Go back home and work on that Mudblood. I will see you back here in two days' time." There was a high-pitched chuckle that raised the hairs on the back of Severus's neck. "Imagine, the Gryffindor Mudblood Princess, earning her keep on her back with her legs open for her teacher, the Head of Slytherin House! How are the mighty fallen, eh? That old tabby cat will have conniptions when she finds out what has become of her precious protégé! And a virgin, too. The little bitch's pussy is probably tighter than Nagini's grip on her dinner. You are a lucky man, Severus." With that, he turned his attention elsewhere, and Severus knew he was dismissed._

The meeting weighed heavily on him. Of course, he still intended to have Hermione in his bed, but he would have much preferred to persuade her there at his own pace. Now the whole thing would feel rushed, and he worried that there wasn't enough time to seduce her without her regretting the encounter and coming to loathe him. And seduce her he must.

It was clear that Voldemort expected Severus to take Hermione's virginity, and a fabricated memory would no longer suffice to satisfy the snake's twisted fetishes. In his paranoia, he felt the need to reassure himself yet again that Severus was a loyal Death Eater, and any loyal Death Eater would delight in robbing Harry Potter's mudblood friend of her innocence. And he was probably aware that such memories could be fabricated, so he wished to examine Hermione himself in order to ascertain the removal of her virginity, thereby assuring himself that Severus was the epitomic Slytherin and Death Eater, enjoying the services, however forced, of Gryffindor House's Muggle-born star pupil.

"I am fine, Miss…" With a frown, he realized there was no point pretending in front of her two friends anymore. And the sooner he could at least get her comfortable with him, the better. "Hermione," he said instead. When she blinked up at him in surprise, he sighed. "I am fine, but there is something I must share with the three of you." He gently extracted himself from her arms and gently urged her to sit while he remained standing.

"I have shared with the Dark Lord the plan for Miss Weasley and Miss Lovegood to stay with Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott. In return, however, the two boys will have to give the appearance of helping me as spies within Hogwarts, scouting out potential future recruits to the Death Eater cause among the students. The Dark Lord has instructed me to bring him a list of names the first time he summons me after the school term has begun. In addition, in two weeks there will be a gala where Mr. Zabini, Mr. Nott, and myself will be able to, in the Dark Lord's words, 'showcase our little concubines.' In otherwords, the three of you will be forced to attend the gala with the three of us. For the next two weeks, the three of you will have to put aside your desired studies in favor of learning Occlumency. I realize, Hermione, that you already have some proficiency in that art; you can help your friends. It will not do for the Dark Lord to discover that you are not being used the way he thinks you are."

The three girls nodded their agreement, their faces solemn; Hermione glanced at her two friends, her face both worried and determined.

"Is that it, Professor?" Luna asked, her expression serious for once.

He nodded. "For now." He paused, his eyes resting on Hermione, and then he added, "Actually, I must speak privately with Hermione. You may return to the library, or, if you like, you may go back outside. She will find you in a bit."

The three girls glanced at each other, Luna and Ginny sharing a significant look while Hermione looked at them with her brows furrowed. When she looked back at him, her frown deepened. But apparently the look on his face was enough to keep them all from arguing.

Ginny and Luna rose without another word, gathering their books together. They murmured to Hermione as they moved past her on their way out the door, and then they were gone and the door was closing behind them. Mindy winked out of the room herself, murmuring that she'd be in the kitchens preparing dinner. Then Hermione and her professor were alone.

"What is it, sir?" she asked with trepidation, seeing the preoccupied frown on his face as he stared into the fire.

He turned back to her, his dark eyes unreadable. "Miss Granger…Hermione…it seems that you were correct in your assumption that the Dark Lord would require proof that I purchased you for use as a personal sex slave. He has essentially ordered me to take you tomorrow night, by force if necessary, and present him with a memory of the encounter the following day." He held up a hand as she opened her mouth furiously to protest. "I'm not finished. His paranoia is such that he constantly feels the need to assure himself of his followers' loyalty, and being a master Legillimens like myself, he is aware that such memories can be fabricated. So a mere memory will not be enough proof for him, even a real one. He also declared that he will take personal pleasure in, to quote him exactly, reminding you of the removal of your virginity and your new status as my plaything." He stopped here, watching her reaction.

He saw Hermione's face go white as a sheet. "He's going to examine me to see whether or not you fucked me?" she demanded, her voice strained from the effort of not raising it.

He winced at how crudely she'd put it, as crudely as Voldemort himself would have. "Yes," he replied. "He will physically examine you to see whether or not you remain a virgin. He will do it in as uncomfortable, degrading, and humiliating a manner as he can come up with, likely in public. The only thing I can say you don't have to worry about is that he will not rape you. I am in his favor enough so that the things I have purchased for myself he does not require me to share with him or with anyone else. But should he examine you and find that you are yet a virgin, the consequences for you, your friends, and myself will be…unfathomable." Again he fell silent, letting her work out the implications.

"So…you _have_ to have sex with me. I _have_ to let you take me. And either I let you have me…or you rape me." She spoke slowly, trying to absorb the words as she said them. Her eyes swung back up to meet his, pleading. "You promised it would never be rape."

He sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. "So I did. But I said that to leave you with the impression that I'd make you want to be with me, that I would seduce you until you came to me of your own volition. But unless you prove easier to seduce than I was expecting, we don't have time for me to win you over as I would have preferred. It must be done by tomorrow night." His black eyes snagged hers and held them, dark yet glinting with secret promises that sent a bolt of heat shivering down her spine until it pooled low in her belly.

He stepped up to her until he was frighteningly close, his gaze still holding hers captive. When he spoke, his voice had deepened into that rough, silky purr that went straight to her knickers. "I _can_ promise you that if you do come to me of your own volition, there will be pleasure beyond your wildest imaginings. I can teach you to give and take it in equal measure, so that your lover is not the only one left completely sated at the end of the evening. I may not be the most handsome of men, but I am a very skilled lover and I can promise that you will not be left wanting in any way."

Her eyes searched his uncertainly, looking for reassurance. He could see something wavering in her eyes, and knew she would give in. Of course, her only other option was rape, which neither of them would enjoy, but he had the feeling that her curiosity at the very least was getting the better of her.

So he decided not to push her any further; he'd given her the information, and now she simply needed to absorb it and think on it. Nothing would happen tonight anyway. Tonight was for her and her two friends, their last night together. After tomorrow morning the three girls would be sleeping in different beds at night, each in a different home.

"Come, Hermione. I will take you back to your friends. You will have this last night together with them before they leave. Tell them whatever is in you to tell them, and let them give you what comfort they can, for it will be different from anything I might be able to offer." With that, he led her back to the library, back to Ginny and Luna.

When the two of them arrived, Hermione experienced a bizarre moment of déjà vu; Ginny and Luna were sitting together in the same place, in the same position, they'd been earlier after Hermione's confrontation with Severus about the plan for her two friends.

The two girls looked up at their approach. "Everything all right?" Ginny asked.

Hermione nodded but said nothing more, and both Ginny and Luna assumed that she didn't want to discuss it now but would tell them later.

"There are yet another couple of hours until dinner, and it would be wise for the three of you to start learning Occlumency as soon as possible. Since I know that Hermione has been learning Occlumency on her own, I wish to test her abilities first. Meanwhile, you two," Severus nodded to Ginny and Luna, "need to begin to work on clearing your minds. Keep in mind, I don't mean emptying it. I mean distancing yourself from your own mind by allowing your thoughts to occur without reacting to them beyond acknowledging that they are there. Recognize the thought for what it is, then push it aside before you can analyze it or react emotionally to it. You may find it helps you to focus your attention first on your own body – the sounds it makes, sensations, minute muscle movements, your heartbeat, your breathing, and so on. Learn your body's rhythm, use it to regulate your breathing, and once you are in tune with the organization of your own body, you may then turn to your thoughts. Watch them pass but do not react. Do not allow the realization that you are hungry, for instance, to lead you to wonder what is for dinner. Do not allow the realization that, despite the fact that it is summer-time and you are not in school, I am still instructing you to lead you to wonder whether or not you will ever indeed be rid of me. If your foot falls asleep, however, adjust it, but try to do so with minimal disruption to the otherwise relaxed state of your mind and body. Discomforts like that should not be pushed aside, because they are signs of imminent trouble. An empty belly can be ignored for a time; your foot falling asleep is a sign that your circulation has been cut off somewhere, which can be detrimental."

The two girls nodded, and so he said, "Find a place to make yourselves comfortable enough to relax, but not so comfortable that you fall asleep. Meanwhile, I will be testing Hermione's mental shields."

Ginny and Luna obeyed, both of them moving to sit on the floor. Ginny sat herself on the rug, legs bent but not completely crossed; she knew the weight of one leg resting partially over the other would cause her to cramp. Her hands rested loosely on her thighs. Luna sat against the wall, leaning her back against it but keeping her head up; her legs lay straight out from her body, feet shoulder-width apart and listing, relaxed, to the side. Her forearms rested on her thighs, her hands hanging limply between them. Both girls closed their eyes and soon their breathing slowed but maintained a controlled rhythm.

Meanwhile, Severus had turned to Hermione. He led her a distance away from the other two so as not to disrupt their attempts at organizing their minds, and then instructed her, murmuring softly. "Hold your eyes to mine and don't blink. I will attempt to enter your mind, and I want you to repel me. You succeeded at the brothel when I attempted to share my true intentions with you, but I was not being nearly as subtle as I am capable of being, and you, upset as you were with what you perceived my intentions to be, were rather forceful. I will not give you any warning as to how much force I am going to use; it is up to you to determine how to react. Ultimately, however, I wish to see how capable you are of repelling both the most forceful and the most subtle attacks on your mind."

Hermione nodded and met his gaze with hers. She waited for a long moment, but then a sudden, blinding pain exploded behind her eyes. Her reaction was almost knee-jerk; just as she could feel ghostly tendrils reaching to grasp at the memories that were foremost in her mind, she slammed shut the heavy, thick wooden doors that formed the entrance to her shields.

Severus staggered backward as he felt himself practically catapulted from Hermione's mind. He fought the urge to windmill in a most undignified manner as he regained his balance, shaking his head vigorously to stop the spinning. As his vision cleared, he saw Hermione shaking her own head a little, fingers pressed to her temples. "_Ow_," she groaned, glaring at him.

He raised an eyebrow. "I did say I wouldn't be giving you any warning as to how much force I used," he chided. "But I will say that your shield is powerful, and reliable. If you can deter an attack as powerful as that, which is intended to be careless with your mind and to cause pain, then you don't need to worry about the destruction of your mind. However, that felt like more of a knee-jerk reaction, which may indicate an inability to control your own shields. If you were to repel the Dark Lord like that, for instance, you will undoubtedly anger him and he will seek to torture you some other way. A master Occlumens, however, can withstand such an onslaught and deliberately provide Voldemort with what he seeks and still protect their secrets and those of Potter, Dumbledore, and the Order. A master Occlumens can also detect even the subtlest of invasions into their mind and, again, provide the intruder with mental decoys. This is where the ability to fabricate memories comes into play."

He watched her straighten, and said, "Again." This time, he decided to enter her mind subtly. As he suspected, she was not as proficient at deterring a subtle attack, so he was able to get the tendrils of his mind on the nearest memory at hand. It proved to be utterly inane, however, simply a memory of her counting the rings of a tree stump. The memory was so focused on the counting of the tree rings that he couldn't even tell where the memory took place; for all he could tell, it could be one of the trees beside the Black Lake or a tree in her own backyard at home or even a tree she had made up to distract him.

Whether the tree was real or not, he realized quickly that it had been a distraction; as soon as he decided to discard that memory, he found himself in a dark, almost completely empty room surrounded by many wooden chests, all of them chained and padlocked. Before he could do more than realize that she had just locked away all her other thoughts and memories, he felt an invisible force propelling him from the room, and then the heavy wooden doors were swinging shut, this time less noisily.

"Well done, Hermione. It seems that, even though you were slow to react to the intrusion, you already had a distraction in place. That will work for someone taking a leisurely stroll through your mind to find out what your thoughts and memories are, rather than someone seeking a specific memory. But should the Dark Lord choose to invade your mind, it is best that he never discover your mastery of Occlumency. That is where the ability to create many false memories will come in handy. You may even need to create an entire false mindscape.

"Everyone's mind has a certain structure according to their personality. It might be a garden, for example with certain areas of the garden representing certain areas of the mind. The most secluded areas of the garden represent the deepest reaches of the person's mind, while the most colorful and riotous areas represent areas visited more frequently by the person. Different kinds of thoughts or emotions will be represented by different kinds of plants. A colorful flower might represent a memory that makes the person happy, while a sad memory might appear as a dead or wilted plant, and negative thoughts might be represented by weeds, nettles, or something like poison ivy. In a garden, false memories will be represented by the most alluring flowers, whether by scent or color or the way they catch the light. Secret thoughts and memories will be hidden beneath other plants.

"A master Occlumens can also create a false mindscape for the intruder to rifle through, especially if the intruder's intentions are to ultimately destroy the mind. In the end, all that is destroyed is the false mindscape, which can be rebuilt any number of times, like a city of blocks. And if the Occlumens is a good enough actor besides and can feign mindlessness, the Legillimens is none the wiser. Later you and I will work on creating a false mindscape for you. For now you need to practice sensing and deterring subtle attacks _without_ using a distraction to buy time to lock up the rest of your thoughts and memories."

So saying, he entered her mind for the second time, again taking the subtle approach. This time he had just enough time to enter and realize that the visual representation of her mind was a library with her thoughts, memories, and emotions represented by books – _of course,_ he thought with a smirk – before he felt that invisible force turning him gently but firmly around and forcing him to walk back out, the wooden doors closing almost noiselessly before him. The third time he tried to enter her mind, however, the wooden doors weren't even open. The fourth time, he decided to try to see if the library had another entrance. He found one, and moved among the shelves of her mind, but when he pulled a memory from its shelf, he found that it wouldn't open. _That_ made him smirk. So she'd thought of the possibility of him seeking another entrance, and had accounted for the possibility of him getting in without her permission so that he still couldn't see what her thoughts, memories, and emotions were.

After that last time, he pulled himself out of her mind. "Well done," he praised. "You learn quickly. Later we will work on creating a false mindscape. For now you may start reading the books on Animagus transformations while I assist your friends. Miss Weasley appears to be fidgeting, while Miss Lovegood seems to have forgotten that she was supposed to be clearing her mind and has instead been watching us."

Hermione turned her head and found that Luna was still in the same spot, leaning against the wall, but was indeed watching the two of them unabashedly.

"Sorry, Professor," the blonde said candidly. "It seems I got distracted, and watching you test Hermione's mental shields was quite interesting. Did you know that the longer you spent inside her mind, the closer to her you stood?"

* * *

Hahahah, oh, Luna. Always saying what no one else dares to for fear it will come out as intrusive or nosy or just plain weird. Her honesty is refreshing, isn't it? Not to mention her unique ability to see right past whatever illusions you think you're fooling everyone with.

So what do we think? And for those of you who think I'm taking an awfully long time to get anywhere with Snape and Hermione, patience. It will come soon. I've practically told you when it's going to happen - I swear, I'm not going to try to cram five more chapters between now and tomorrow night (their tomorrow night, that is) because I have no desire to torture myself, and believe me, the wait is killing me almost as much as it is you. But no, I'm not going to tell you how it's going to happen. You have to read and see. I will say, though, that if you skip the next chapter, you'll regret it.

RP13


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